Behavioural Processes 64 (2003) 197–210 Acoustic communication in Drosophila Eran Tauber a,∗ , Daniel F. Eberl b a Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK b Department of Biological Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1324, USA Received 14 January 2003; received in revised form 1 April 2003; accepted 7 April 2003 Abstract Acoustic communication during courtship has been extensively studied in many Drosophila species. Here we summarise approaches that have been applied to the study of both song production and hearing. These approaches harnessed a variety of genetic tools available in Drosophila, such as isolation of song or hearing mutants, QTL mapping and transgenesis as well as electrophysiology and behavioural analysis. We also provide a short guide for the methodology used in acoustic studies in Drosophila and discuss prospects and new tools that would benefit future research. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Acoustic communication; Courtship song; Drosophila; Hearing; Chordotonal organ 1. Introduction Males of many Drosophila species produce a courtship song to attract females. Since the first anal- ysis of Drosophila song (Shorey, 1962), the songs of more than 100 species of Drosophila have been char- acterised (e.g. Ewing and Bennet-Clark, 1968; Miller et al., 1975; Ewing, 1969, 1970, 1979a; Lakovaara and Hoikkala, 1979; Ikeda et al., 1980; Cowling and Burnet, 1981; Ewing and Miyan, 1986; Chen, 1988; Tomaru et al., 1995; Gleason and Ritchie, 1998), and the list is still growing. The study of acoustic communication in Drosophila, as is the case with any behavioural system, has two dimensions: the proximate and ultimate levels. Evolutionary (ultimate) studies explore the adaptive function of the fly communication system and the implications on evolutionary processes such as sex- ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-116-2523421; fax: +44-116-2523378. E-mail address: et22@leicester.ac.uk (E. Tauber). ual selection and speciation. In contrast, mechanistic (proximate) studies are concerned with how the neu- ral networks produce the signal (‘sound production’) and how the brain perceives and decodes the message (‘hearing’). Using Drosophila as a model allows us to address mechanistic questions both at the molecular and the cellular levels. The current review focuses on the proximate, neural aspects of sound production and hearing in Drosophila. 2. Sound production 2.1. Some physics of sound Air-borne sounds have two energy components: the fluctuations in air pressure propagating away from the sound source (“the pressure component”) and air particles vibrating back and forth in the direction of sound propagation (“particle displacement”). The en- ergy loss is much greater for particle displacement and this component of the sound is practically important 0376-6357/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0376-6357(03)00135-9