Female-Produced Stimuli Influencing Courtship of Male House Flies (Musca domestica)1

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Abstract
Courtship stimuli of importance to male house flies were investigated by recording male responses to tethered flies of both sexes. The males courted tethered females with significantly greater frequency than they courted tethered males. This sexual discrimination by males remained even when various visual, acoustic, or behavioral differences between the sexes were eliminated. However, following the apparent loss of chemical differences between the sexes of dead flies, the sex recognition ability of the males was abolished. It appears that female-produced chemical(s) may be especially important in influencing a male to continue through the entire courtship sequence and make a copulatory attempt. The ability of antennaeless males to discriminate the sex of dead flies suggests that contact chemoreception may be important in sexual recognition. When tested 24 hr after copulation, mated females were not inferior to virgin females in their abilities to elicit courtship from males.

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