Rest behavior in Anastrepha ludens using an electronic behavioral monitoring system

Although insect behavior is a core discipline in entomology, detailed lifetime behavior has never been recorded for any species. Using a high resolution Behavioral Monitoring System (BMS), behavior of the Mexican Fruit Fly (Anastrepha ludens) was recorded for their entire lifetime. Thirty-two females were maintained on two different diet treatments (full diet 3:1 sugar to yeast, and sugar only diet). The BMS recorded six behaviors (e.g. rest and walking) as well as the spatial location for each fly. A definition for true continuous rest was developed using rest behavior, location and distance traveled. Three general trends in rest behavior were identified: 1) Increase with age in rest latency – the period between the beginning of the dark period and the start of continuous rest increases as flies age. 2) Increase in rest fragmentation with age – continuous rest bouts become shorter as flies grew older. 3) Greater periods of rest for sugar-fed flies. Flies fed only sugar rested more overall and had longer continuous rest periods relative to protein-fed flies. The true rest periods followed most of the requirements for invertebrate sleep-like behavior including circadian rhythm, quiescence, and specific location. Similarly, the changes in rest behavior with age are similar to the outcomes of sleep research in other organisms including humans. These results i) reveal important behavioral patterns that, because of both the observational resolution and duration, have never before been reported; and ii) demonstrate the potential for studying sleep-like behavior with this model organism using this high resolution system.