Fruit flies’ sex acts

A male fly serenading a female - she likes it - they mate. This is the courting behaviour of a male fruit fly as it naturally occurs.

The same thing happening, this time artificially triggered by the laser technique that Professor Miesenböck has pioneered. Now the male flies can be 'remote controlled' to sing to the female whenever Professor Miesenböck wants them to.

The female is triggered by the laser to vibrate one wing and produce the courtship song - showing that this behaviour lies dormant in the female brain, even though it's only ever seen in males.

Testing out whether this artificially triggered female courtship song is actually convincing to other females. The song is played in the background while a male fly and female fly hang around together (the male fly has had his wings removed so he can't do the song himself). The song does indeed make the female excited, and she lets the wingless male mate with her.