PHEROMONES, MATE RECOGNITION AND COURTSHIP STIMULATION IN THE DROSOPHILA-MELANOGASTER SPECIES SUBGROUP

Female fruitflies of certain species of Drosophila possess cuticular hydrocarbons which act as contact pheromones, capable of inducing male courtship. In three species of the D. melanogaster species subgroup (D. melanogaster, D. sechellia and D. erecta) adult males and females have hydrocarbons of different lengths and structures. In four other species (D. simulans, D. mauritiana, D. yakuba and D. teissieri) there is no qualitative difference between the sexes. Observations of courtships showed that hydrocarbons act as courtship-inducing pheromones in all the species studied here. Males can be induced to court other flies, regardless of sex or species, if the hydrocarbons of the courted fly correspond to the main female cuticular hydrocarbon of the species of the courting male. Males from species that do not show a hydrocarbon dimorphism responded mainly to the principal hydrocarbon of their species. Males from the dimorphic species tended to respond to a wider range of hydrocarbons, and also showed high levels of courtship with young flies of both sexes and all species, whose hydrocarbons had some structural similarities to those of homotypic adult females. © 1990 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.