Drosophila erecta: food odour gates male courtship in flies

Researchers at Rockefeller University, in the laboratory of Vanessa Ruta, report in Nature (dx.doi.org) that mating in the fruit fly Drosophila erecta depends strictly on the ecological and social environment that forms when flies aggregate densely on a food patch dx.doi.org. The first author is Philipp Brand, a former postdoc in the lab who now leads a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt. The press release was published on 4 November 2026.

Food odour as a gate for arousal

According to the authors, food volatiles directly promote male sexual arousal and prompt males to sample and pursue potential mates dx.doi.org. In the press release, the researchers state that without the scent of fermented fruit D. erecta males show no interest in courtship.

The species' reproduction and population density are tightly linked to the seasonal availability of its host fruit, the screwpine Pandanus, which leaves a narrow window for individuals to meet and mate dx.doi.org. The authors suggest that the species has evolved behavioural adaptations that couple reproduction to sensory cues from its host dx.doi.org.

Visual feedback and species differences

Male pursuit produces dynamic interactions across the group. The resulting visual motion transforms each male's visual field and further amplifies his arousal, creating a multisensory feedback loop that promotes courtship across individuals dx.doi.org. D. erecta males are highly sensitive to this increase in visual motion, in contrast to D. melanogaster dx.doi.org.

In D. melanogaster, food odour can promote arousal but is dispensable for vigorous courtship dx.doi.org. Comparative circuit analyses show that species-specific arousal thresholds reflect variation in how olfactory input modulates conserved nodes controlling courtship drive. Food volatiles are therefore a strict sensory gate only in D. erecta dx.doi.org.

Brand says that D. erecta shares conserved neural circuitry with related Drosophila species, but its brain requires an additional input, the aroma of food, to activate neurons that promote sexual arousal. Ruta says courtship is shaped by ecological and social context and cannot be separated from it.

The paper also notes that Drosophila species differ in where they mate. D. elegans establishes individual territories on host flowers, and species of the Hawaiian subgroup perform competitive lekking in vegetation around their hosts dx.doi.org.

Drosophila erecta males court only in food odour, Rockefeller team reports in Nature fly study

Food odour as a gate for arousal

Visual feedback and species differences

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