Antennæ and Mating Behaviour in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

THE gene ‘antennaless’ of Drosophila melanogaster does not necessarily express itself fully in individuals homozygous for it¹. In the course of a programme of work designed to isolate, by means of inbreeding and/or selection, a series of families all homozygous for this gene, but differing in degree of exhibition by reason of the various gene milieux present in the various families, it was noticed that high exhibition lines were conspicuously difficult to maintain. In view of the known chemoreceptive function of the antennæ in insects in general² and in Drosophila in particular³, and the importance of the antennæ in the mating behaviour patterns of various species, experiments were started to see whether the poor results obtained with high exhibition lines could be ascribed to failure of adequate mating responses consequent upon absence of stimuli normally reaching the animal via these organs. Evidence that males were attracted to females by olfactory stimuli had not been obtained in previous experiments³.