Skip to main content
Log in

Factors influencing aversive learning in the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Comparative Physiology A Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Parameters such as the intensity of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli, the inter-trial interval, and starvation time can influence learning. In this study, the parameters that govern aversive learning in the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis, a serious pest of fruits and vegetables, were examined. Male flies were trained to associate the attractive odorant methyl eugenol, a male lure, with a food punishment, sodium chloride solution, and the conditioned suppression of the proboscis-extension response was investigated. We found that high methyl eugenol concentrations support a stronger association. With increasing concentrations of sodium chloride solution, a steady decrease of proboscis-extension response during six training trials was observed. A high level of learning was achieved with an inter-trial interval of 1–10 min. However, extending the inter-trial interval to 15 min led to reduced learning. No effect of physiological status (starvation time) on learning performance was detected, nor was any non-associative learning effect induced by the repeat presentation of odor or punishment alone. The memory formed after six training trials could be retained for at least 3 h. Our results indicate that aversive learning by oriental fruit flies can be affected by odor, punishment concentration and inter-trial interval.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

DEET:

N,N-diethyl-3-methyl benzoyl amide

ITI:

Inter-trial interval

KW test:

Kruskal–Wallis test

ME:

Methyl eugenol

PER:

Proboscis extension response

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31401800), the Department of Education of Guangdong Province (GJHZ1140) and Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Insect Behavior Regulation (2015B090903076).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to X. N. Zeng.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

We have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (PDF 138 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liu, J.L., Chen, H.L., Chen, X.Y. et al. Factors influencing aversive learning in the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis . J Comp Physiol A 203, 57–65 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-016-1135-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-016-1135-7

Keywords

Navigation