‘Hangry’ Drosophila: food deprivation increases male aggression

Edmunds, Danielle, Wigby, Stuart and Perry, Jennifer C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8449-2764 (2021) ‘Hangry’ Drosophila: food deprivation increases male aggression. Animal Behaviour, 177. pp. 183-190. ISSN 0003-3472

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Abstract

Aggressive interactions are costly, such that individuals should display modified aggression in response to environmental stress. Many organisms experience frequent periods of food deprivation, which can influence an individual's capacity and motivation to engage in aggression. However, because food deprivation can simultaneously decrease an individual's resource-holding potential and increase its valuation of food resources, its net impact on aggression is unclear. Here, we tested the influence of increasingly prolonged periods of adult food deprivation on intermale aggression in pairs of fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster. We found that males displayed increased aggression following periods of food deprivation longer than a day. Increased aggression in food-deprived flies occurred despite their reduced mass. This result is probably explained by an increased attraction to food resources, as food deprivation increased male occupancy of central food patches, and food patch occupancy was positively associated with aggression. Our findings demonstrate that aggressive strategies in male D. melanogaster are influenced by nutritional experience, highlighting the need to consider past nutritional stresses to understand variation in aggression.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: drosophila melanogaster,aggression,contest theory,diet,nutrition,ecology, evolution, behavior and systematics,animal science and zoology ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1105
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Organisms and the Environment
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 18 May 2021 00:10
Last Modified: 14 May 2023 00:56
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/80033
DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.05.001

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