Early visual experience affects mate choice of Drosophila melanogaster

Experience-dependent development of the nervous system is now recognized among insects, in which its functional significance can be studied readily. Depriving normal Drosophila melanogaster of visual stimulation during their first few days of adult life (‘dar-rearing’) had a dramatic effect on mate choice. Dark-reared males were at a disadvantage when they competed with males reared in alternating light-dark cycles (‘light-rearing’) for light-reared females. Dark-rearing also affected reproductive success when deprived males or females were paired with light-reared flies of the opposite sex; the pairs that had the same rearing histories had higher copulation frequencies and lower copulation latencies than those that did not. Dark-reared males tested with light-reared females under dim red light to reduce the use of visual cues were less successful at copulating than light-reared control males. The effects of dark-rearing thus may not be limited to the visual system.