Genetic and light intensity effects on the activity and emigratory behavior of the house fly,Musca domestica (L.)

The emigratory behavior and locomotor activity of yellow-eyed (y/y), wildtype (+/+), and heterozygous (+/y) house flies was examined at 8 fc (86 lx) and 1600 fc (17,223 lx) light intenstities. At 8 fc, emigration rate and activity of the y/y flies was similar to that of the +/+ and +/y flies. However, at 1600 fc, the y/y flies emigrated at twice the rate and showed an activity of about one-third that of the other genotypes. The behavior of the +/+ and +/y flies remained similar regardless of the experimental design or light intensity. The excessive neural stimulation by high-intensity light resulting from reduced shielding pigments led to behavioral modifications in the visual and tactile responses of the y/y flies.This research was supported in part by grants from the CUNY Faculty Research Award Program (No. 1103) and NIH Biomedical Research Support Grant 5-S05-R-07064.