Scientists at Aberystwyth University’s Department of Life Sciences have made a noteworthy discovery regarding biting flies and their attraction to blue objects. They found that these flies are strongly drawn to the color blue because they mistake it for potential hosts they can feed on. This finding has significant implications for disease control, especially for diseases transmitted by flies like sleeping sickness, as it can enhance the effectiveness of traps.
Dr. Roger Santer, the lead researcher, explained that previous entomological field studies had noted the flies’ attraction to the color blue, which led to the creation of blue traps. However, the reason behind this particular attraction had remained a puzzle, and previous theories linking it to shade or animals were not firmly substantiated.
To address this question, the research team developed artificial neural networks that replicated the visual processing in the fly’s brain, specifically focusing on tsetse, stable, and horse flies. These networks were trained to differentiate between animals and leaf backgrounds and shaded and unshaded surfaces using the responses of the fly’s photoreceptor cells.
The neural networks were then tested to classify blue flytraps. The results, published in the Proceedings of Royal Society B, challenged the theory that flies perceive blue as shade. The networks successfully detected shade through brightness without misclassifying blue objects as shade. However, when it came to recognizing animals, the networks frequently mistook blue traps for animals by comparing the responses of blue and green-sensitive photoreceptors.
Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that blue objects, including traps, resemble potential hosts to flies. Understanding the mechanisms behind this attraction to colored traps could lead to the development of more efficient trap designs to catch flies. This is crucial for disease control efforts, as various species of biting flies transmit diseases among humans and animals. Diseases such as sleeping sickness, which is prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and can be fatal without treatment, as well as the globally destructive stable fly, could benefit from this research.
Field experiments have supported the team’s conclusions. Tsetse flies captured in blue traps exhibit signs of not having recently fed, indicating their active search for hosts.
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