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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on May 18, 2005
Behavioral Ecology 2005 16(4):800-804; doi:10.1093/beheco/ari057
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Learning affects mate choice in female fruit flies

Reuven Dukas

Animal Behaviour Group, Department of Psychology, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada

Address correspondence to R. Dukas. E-mail: dukas{at}mcmaster.ca.

Learning in the context of mate choice can influence sexual selection and speciation. Relatively little work, however, has been conducted on the role of learning in the context of mate choice, and this topic has been mostly ignored in insects even though insects have served as a prime model system in research on sexual selection and incipient speciation. Extending recent work indicating apparently adaptive learning in the context of sexual behavior by male fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), I tested for the effect of learning on mate choice by female fruit flies. Compared to young virgin females that experienced courtship by large males, young virgin females that experienced courtship by small males were more likely to mate with small and large males in a test conducted a day after the experience phase. These results, which are the first clear empirical demonstration of learning in the context of mate choice by female insects, lay the foundation for research on the role of learning in insect sexual selection and speciation.

Key words: courtship, Drosophila, fruit flies, learning, mate choice, speciation.


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