Sexual dimorphism matches photoreceptor performance to behavioural requirements

Differences in behaviour exist between the sexes of most animal species and are associated with many sex–specific specializations. The visual system of the male housefly is known to be specialized for pursuit behaviour that culminates in mating. Males chase females using a high–acuity region of the fronto–dorsal retina (the ‘love spot’) that drives sex–specific neural circuitry. We show that love spot photoreceptors of the housefly combine better spatial resolution with a faster electrical response, thereby allowing them to code higher velocities and smaller targets than female photoreceptors. Love spot photoreceptors of males are more than 60% faster than their female counterparts and are among the fastest recorded for any animal. The superior response dynamics of male photoreceptors is achieved by a speeding up of the biochemical processes involved in phototransduction and by a tuned voltage–activated conductance that boosts the membrane frequency response. These results demonstrate that the inherent plasticity of phototransduction facilitates the tuning of the dynamics of visual processing to the requirements of visual ecology.