Vinegar flies are quite quarrelsome in nature. The males engage in a tough fight to expel others from some prized dwellings, such as a piece of fruit. However, when raised in the laboratory these insects become much more peaceful.
A few years ago, Herman A. Dierick and Ralph J. Greenspan, biologists at the San Diego Institute of Neurosciences (USA), managed to reverse this process and restore the “natural aggressiveness” of flies . The result can be seen in this video, whose protagonist fiercely defends a cup full of food.
Thanks to this experiment, Dierick and Greenspan were able to study the neural circuits that kicked in when animals behaved aggressively . Their work was published in the journal Nature Genetic s.
