Sociability in Fruit Flies: Genetic Variation, Heritability and Plasticity

Sociability, defined as individuals’ propensity to participate in non-aggressive activities with conspecifics, is a fundamental feature of behavior in many animals including humans. However, we still have a limited knowledge of the mechanisms and evolutionary biology of sociability. To enhance our understanding, we developed a new protocol to quantify sociability in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). In a series of experiments with 59 F1 …