Estimating thermal death time curves in Drosophila tripunctata using infrared activity monitors

Assessing heat failure across different test temperatures allows for the estimation of heat tolerance and thermal sensitivity under the thermal death time (TDT) model of damage accumulation. One challenge is phenotyping sufficient numbers of individuals. Previous work used human observations or cameras. Infrared (IR) monitors provide an alternative method. While IR monitors have been successfully used to assess heat failure, they have not been used to estimate TDT parameters. Here, we use Drosophila tripunctata to estimate heat tolerance and thermal sensitivity for males and females across 4-6 test temperatures and 6 isofemale lines, validating the use of IR monitors.