Effects of Sex and Time on Stress Behaviors of Teleopsis dalmanni

Voiceover

Presenter(s)

Aurelia Valente

Abstract or Description

Many species have been shown to exhibit behavioral responses to environmental stressors. Stalk-eyed flies (Teleopsis dalmanni) present an interesting model for studying stress behaviors because their long, sexually-dimorphic eyestalks could lead to an evolution of behavioral differences between the sexes. Male and female stalk-eyed flies can be identified by the difference in their eye-stalks, which are larger and longer in males. Stalk-eyed flies have exhibited aggressive and anti-predatory behaviors, with notable differences by sex. In order to determine if stalk-eyed flies differed in stress responses by sex, male and female stalk-eyed flies were placed dorsally on fly paper and videotaped for a given treatment time of 30 seconds, one minute, five minutes, or ten minutes. Fly brains were removed for later analysis of brain monoamine levels via High Performance Liquid Chromatography as a physiological measure of stress response. The trial videos were observed in order to create an ethogram of noted stress behaviors. The ethogram was programmed into J-Watcher software, and the behaviors in the experimental videos of male and female flies with each treatment time were coded with each observed behavior. Behaviors were divided into high intensity behaviors, low intensity behaviors, and the resting state, and analyzed using JMP statistical software. There was no statistically significant difference between male and female fly stress responses. However, there was a significant difference in time spent in behaviors for both males and females. There was a decrease in time spent in low intensity and resting behaviors as the time intervals increased, compared an increase in high intensity behaviors. Brain monoamines will be investigated in order to further determine differences in fly stress behaviors.