title: 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 time-to-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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA. jrcarey@ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Carey
authors.forename: Nikos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Papadopoulos
authors.forename: Nikos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kouloussis
authors.forename: Byron
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Katsoyannos
authors.forename: Hans-Georg
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Jane-Ling
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yi-Kuan
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Tseng
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D033622:Ceratitis capitata / Q000502:physiology*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D008136:Longevity / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D012146:Rest / Q000502:physiology; D016683:Supine Position / Q000502:physiology