FRUIT flies court by beating out love messages with their wings, but how
their potential mates hear the message has long been a mystery.
To find out, Daniel Robert and Martin G枚pfert at the University of
Zurich glued a Drosophila melanogaster fly to a tiny rod and fired a
laser beam at each of the three sections of its antennae. By measuring the
reflected light, they could see how each part of the antenna moved. When they
played the sound of wing beats to the fly, the top section of its
antenna鈥攚hich is studded with smell sensors鈥攔otated 180掳 until
it locked into a notch in the second section beneath (Nature, vol 411,
p 907).
鈥淲hen it鈥檚 locked in place, vibrations are transmitted down the antenna to
the auditory sensors in the second segment,鈥� says Robert.
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