Fruit fly antennae are tuned in

Links: - UCL Ear Institute - Research paper in Current Biology The antennal ears of different fruit fly species are actively tuned to high-frequency components of their respective mating songs, according to new research led by UCL scientists. During courtship, male fruit flies serenade females with a 'love song' produced by quiet, close-range wing vibrations. The females hear these songs with their antennae, which pick up the resultant faint air currents. These courtship songs, identified in over a hundred different Drosophilid flies, are known to differ in their frequency composition across species. They are crucial to reproduction and are thought to have evolved in part to avoid cross-breeding between species. The new study, published today in Current Biology, demonstrates that the flies? antennal ears show active frequency tuning to the song specific to their species. Although the antennae's underlying anatomical design appears to be the same across species, they differ significantly in terms of the frequencies they are tuned to.