For fun, fruit flies play a game you know all too well

We tend to imagine that humans, and perhaps their pets, are the only terrifying ones. A study published in early August on puresafeArchives of publications dedicated to the biological sciences – contradicts this notion. In fact, scientists involved with fruit flies have identified what may be the first documented example of locomotor play in an invertebrate.

According to the conclusions of this study, these insects have a habit of voluntarily embarking on a rotating platform, which evokes the carousels so popular with children. On various occasions, these tiny creatures have climbed onto them, leading the researchers to believe that they would especially enjoy hopping around.

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Put the body in motion

Behavioral specialist Samadi Galpayage, who works at Queen Mary University in London and was not involved in this study, talks about this fascinating site discovery. scienceTuesday, August 15th. The scientist, who in the past discovered that bumblebees play with objects, explained this “Flies met all the criteria for a game as we know it from other animals.”.

Sergio Bellis, a behavioral specialist at the University of Lethbridge (Canada), considered this study – which has not yet been evaluated by other scientists – in particular. “arousing”. If proven, he said, this data would confirm that invertebrates can have a sense of humor. It would also be the first example of an “action game”. documented for these animals. Jumping, swinging, running… This type of play alludes to activities that involve movement of the body.

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Duck inspired this study

Wolf Hütteroth, a neuroscientist and co-author of the study, had the idea to conduct this research after he was inspired by … a duck. A very long time ago, he saw one of these birds sailing alone on the surface of a fast-running river. The bird had, at one point, flown upstream, before landing on the water to land on the tide. Repeat this process several times.

Wolf Hauteroth, quoted in Science, for indulging in this confidence:

“I always wondered what made him act in such a strange way.”

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The game observed in these flies differs from that which other insects, such as bees, indulge in. The latter are capable of tedious operations, among which is the counting of objects of different shapes.

in 2015, France 3 He published an article on the subject, referring to work on the visual perception of bees by Aurore Avarguès-Weber, a researcher from Saône-et-Loire.

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