Drosophila melanogaster behaviour changes in different social environments based on group size and density

Abstract

Many organisms, when alone, behave differently from when they are among a crowd. Drosophila similarly display social behaviour and collective behaviour dynamics within groups not seen in individuals. In flies, these emergent behaviours may be in response to the global size of the group or local nearest-neighbour density. Here we investigate i) which aspect of social life flies respond to: group size, density, or both and ii) whether behavioural changes within the group are dependent on olfactory support cells. Behavioural assays demonstrate that flies adjust their interactive behaviour to group size but otherwise compensate for density by achieving a standard rate of movement, suggesting that individuals are aware of the number of others within their group. We show that olfactory support cells are necessary for flies to behave normally in large groups. These findings shed insight into the subtle and complex life of Drosophila within a social setting.