Fruit Fly Courtship
Duration
00:00:55Description
This video shows real footage of courtship behavior of fruit flies with wing spots.
The males of some species of fruit flies have wing spots. The spots are part of the courtship displays that males present to females. This video shows two examples of courtship displays in Drosophila fruit fly species. The first species shown is D. biarmipes, which has spots on its wings due to a “paintbrush” gene involved in pigmentation. The second species shown is D. tristis, which evolved wing spots independently.
This clip is from a 2005 Holiday Lecture Series, Evolution: Constant Change and Common Threads.
Key Terms
convergent evolution, insect, mating, melanin, paintbrush gene, pigmentation, sexual selection, wing pattern
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