Age-specific and lifetime behavior patterns in Drosophila melanogaster and the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata

Abstract

Patterns of behavior were recorded every 10 min during a 2-h period each day from eclosion to death for individual Drosophila melanogaster (both sexes) and Ceratitis capitata (males-only) including walking, preening, feeding, flying, and resting for the former species, and walking, calling (signaling), supine (upside-down), and resting in the latter. Results reveal that, with the exception of preening in D. melanogaster, behavioral patterns are age-specific and the frequency of several behaviors (e.g. supine in medfly; walking and resting in D. melanogaster) are correlated with timeto-death. This is the first set of studies to report the age patterns over a range of behavioral categories throughout the lives of individuals and thus the first that systematically documents the behavior of individuals at advanced ages. We suggest that the new and unique behaviors (e.g. supine) that emerge from the aging process be referred to as degenerative behaviors, not only to distinguish them from the conventional behavioral classifications (innate, learned), but also to reflect their emergent nature.

Behavioral trajectories as predictors in event history analysis: Male calling behavior forecasts medfly longevity

“…We note that these results complement the event history graphs (Carey et al, 1998) that were constructed for calling behavior of male medflies in Fig. 3 of Carey et al (2006). When comparing remaining lifetime for individual flies at a fixed age, we find that those flies with higher calling behavior at the fixed age generally have higher remaining lifetime.…”

Acquired temperature‐sensitive paralysis as a biomarker of declining neuronal function in aging Drosophila

“…The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster , has been used as a model system to study decline in a number of physiological functions (Grotewiel et al ., 2005). Age-dependent changes in behavior such as walking, feeding, locomotor activity, flying and resting of Drosophila have been reported (Carey et al ., 2006;Simon et al ., 2006). Even specific sensory modalities, such as odor avoidance, have been used to test the functional status of the olfactory system in senescence.…”

Reproduction, social behavior, and aging trajectories in honeybee workers

“…4) and an initial mortality peak in foraging honeybee workers (Rueppell et al 2007, but see Dukas 2008). Our event history charts (Carey et al 2006) also show a concentration of nursing behavior at younger ages in both groups, with foraging activity increasing at older ages in the "forager" group. Furthermore, they indicate that only a fraction of foraging activity was recorded, assuming that workers commit entirely to foraging after reaching their AFF (Winston 1987).…”