A comparison of visual and haltere-mediated equilibrium reflexes in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster

Flies exhibit extraordinary maneuverability, relying on feedback from multiple sensory organs to control flight. Both the compound eyes and the mechanosensory halteres encode angular motion as the fly rotates about the three body axes during flight. Since these two sensory modalities differ in their mechanisms of transduction, they are likely to differ in their temporal responses. We recorded changes in stroke kinematics in response to mechanical and visual rotations delivered within a flight simulator. Our results show that the visual system is tuned to relatively slow rotation whereas the haltere-mediated response to mechanical rotation increases with rising angular velocity. The integration of feedback from these two modalities may enhance aerodynamic performance by enabling the fly to sense a wide range of angular velocities during flight.