Abstract
A laboratory study is presented which shows that larval foraging behavior in the sibling speciesDrosophila melanogaster andD. simulans can respond rapidly (in six generations) to unidirectional selection. An apparatus was designed which selected for larvae which moved from nonnutritive agar medium to plugs of nutritive medium and remained feeding there. Larvae of the selected lines showed a correlated decrease in foraging path length which mirrored thesitter larval forager behavior type previously defined by Sokolowski [(1980).Behav. Genet. 10:291–302]. This supported the hypothesis that sitter larvae moved toward, and remained feeding on, a food source when they were not already utilizing one, whereasrover larvae foraged from food patch to food patch.
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This research was supported by an NSERC Graduate Fellowship and the University of Toronto Open Fellowship to M. B. Sokolowski and NSERC Operating Grant N505 to R. I. C. Hansell.
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Sokolowski, M.B., Hansell, R.I.C. & Rotin, D. Drosophila larval foraging behavior. II. Selection in the sibling species,D. melanogaster andD. simulans . Behav Genet 13, 169–177 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01065665
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01065665