ABSTRACT
This chapter describes acquaint students with the experimental animal, the fly, and some of the techniques that have helped us understand the mechanisms regulating feeding in this insect. Students will discover through experimentation how adult flies taste their food, what sugar concentrations a blow fly will respond to as food, and what role the nervous system plays in feeding regulation. Most flies have their digestive tract partitioned so that food can be diverted for storage to a sac-like structure called the crop. Of all the animals, the only one that rivals the blow fly when it comes to understanding the mechanisms regulating feeding is the laboratory rat. Even then, the insect system is better understood. When a blow fly confronts a sugar solution, it undergoes a several stage stimulus-response sequence which eventually leads to a decision whether or not to begin feeding.
