Mastodawn

"Along with with the group of Katrin Vogt @katvogt at the University of Konstanz, we combine long timescale (3 hours) behavioral tracking of #Drosophila larvae in controlled patchy environments with varying statistics, along with quantitative analysis and computational modeling, to dissect foraging decision strategies. Drosophila larvae adjusted their foraging depending on the environmental parameters: patch quality, patch valence and both simultaneously. We were able to recapitulate these dynamics using a simple integration model." – Ahmed El Hady

"Environmental statistics and sensory experience shape patch foraging strategies in Drosophila larvae", Mudunuri et al.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.27.714746v1

#neuroscience #foraging #DrosophilaLarva

Environmental statistics and sensory experience shape patch foraging strategies in Drosophila larvae

Animals foraging in patchy environments must balance exploiting current resources with exploring for better alternatives to maximize resource intake and to survive. However, the neural and computational mechanisms underlying such adaptive decisions have just recently begun to be understood. Using Drosophila larvae as an experimentally tractable model, we combine long-timescale behavioral tracking in controlled patchy environments with varying statistics, along with quantitative analysis and computational modeling, to dissect foraging decision strategies. We show that larvae flexibly adjust their behavior according to both the quality and valence of available resources, shaped by prior foraging experience. A simple integration model recapitulates larval patch-leaving behavior, with model parameters tuned by environmental statistics and foraging history. Together, these findings establish Drosophila larvae as a powerful system for studying adaptive foraging and for uncovering the neural circuit mechanisms that implement experience-dependent foraging decisions. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, EXC 2117-422037984 International Human Frontier Science Program Organization, RGP006/2025

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Albert Cardona 9h ago

@katvogt

On the same topic:

"Recent experience and internal state shape local search strategies in flies", Goldschmidt et al. (Hannah Haberken's lab)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982226001648

* Search driven by real food expands, shifting with satiety from short to long trips
* Purely gustatory-induced searches are shorter without scaling
* A locomotor adaptation model accounts for most direct returns in long trips

#Drosophila #foraging #SearchStrategies #neuroscience

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Albert Cardona

@katvogt

That last point on "a locomotor adaptation model accounts for most direct returns" reminds me very much of the #Drosophila larva local search:

"Finding a path: Local search behavior of Drosophila larvae", Kromp et al. 2024 (Andreas Thum's lab)
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.21.624685v1

#DrosophilaLarva #foraging #SearchStrategies #neuroscience

Finding a path: Local search behavior of Drosophila larvae

Orientation and navigation are essential features of animals living in changing environments. Typically, animals integrate a variety of allothetic and idiothetic cues to achieve their navigational goals. Allothetic cues, such as visual or chemical landmarks from the environment, provide an external frame of reference. In contrast, idiothetic cues are based on internal proprioceptive feedback and internal copies of motor commands. When Drosophila larvae are exposed briefly to a Teflon container holding a food stimulus, they show a characteristic behavior as soon as the container is removed: They briefly crawl away from the detected resource, remain in its vicinity and then return to the area where they experienced the earlier stimulus. We quantified this behavior with respect to the chemosensory nature of the stimulus, starvation time of the larvae, and agarose concentration of the test plate substrate. We conclude that this behavior represents a centered local search. Furthermore, we exclude various external stimuli (vision and taste), which suggests that possibly idiothetic as opposed to allothetic cues have a stronger influence on the larval local search behavior. In the long term, this behavioral description will enable us to gain insights into the comparability of larval foraging strategies. We also want to investigate whether, despite the simpler organization of the larval brain and the alleged lack of a central complex, a brain region that is important for orientation and navigation in adult Drosophila and other insects, there are common solutions for the brain circuits underlying search behavior. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. * AM : amyl acetate Crv : center revisits CX : central complex EB : ellipsoid body E-PG : ellipsoid body-protocerebral bridge-gall neurons FB : fan-shaped body GRN : gustatory receptor neuron MB : mushroom body NO : noduli OR : olfactory receptor ORN : olfactory receptor neuron PB : protocerebral bridge WT-CS : wild type Canton-S

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