title: Do right-biased boxers do it better? Population-level asymmetry of aggressive displays enhances fighting success in blowflies.
abstract: Lateralisation (i.e. left-right asymmetries in brain and behaviour) of aggressive traits has been deeply studied in a number of vertebrates, while evidence for invertebrates is scarce. We investigated lateralisation of boxing behaviour in the blowfly Calliphora vomitoria (Diptera: Calliphoridae), where males fight for non-resource based spaces. We found a population-level lateralisation of aggressive displays: three repeated testing phases confirmed the preferential use of right legs over left ones. Duration of contests and number of boxing acts per fighting event were not different between males using left and right legs. The use of right legs for boxing acts lead to higher fighting success over males using left legs. Lateralised aggressive displays at population-level may be connected to the prolonged social interactions occurring among males searching for food and mates.
authors: Insect Behaviour Group, Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy.
authors: Donato
authors: D
authors: Romano
authors: Insect Behaviour Group, Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy.
authors: Angelo
authors: A
authors: Canale
authors: Insect Behaviour Group, Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy. Electronic address: g.benelli@sssup.it.
authors: Giovanni
authors: G
authors: Benelli
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D004175:Diptera / Q000502:physiology*; D005121:Extremities; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male
keywords: Aggression; Arthropods; Calliphoridae; Laterality; Male–male contests