What is this?

A research experiment by Misch Strotz to test how a fruit fly behaves in a room.

A connectome-constrained model of the Drosophila melanogaster optic lobe is closed around a shared three-dimensional kitchen room. Compound-eye columns follow MaleCNS retinotopy. Synaptic wiring and signs come from the Janelia FlyEM MaleCNS v1.0 reconstruction and compute local motion. Locomotion uses published visuomotor reflexes.

Beside the eyes the body keeps a hemolymph: trehalose, fat, crop, water, and gut. Hunger is adipokinetic hormone (AKH) acting through octopamine; a full crop releases drosulfakinin and insulin-like peptides. Antennae smell food and fecal cVA; the tarsi taste sugar and water; the arista reads temperature (preference near 25 °C); the sacculus reads humidity. Sleep pressure and a circadian clock follow the real day. Dust on the bristles starts grooming, head then body. A full rectum leaves a spot. A fed male at fruit patrols and sings; there is no female here. Nothing is timed or teleported: he moves on what he senses and what is in his blood.

Brain: MaleCNS v1.0, Janelia FlyEM · Cambridge · Google, CC BY 4.0. Body: NeuroMechFly / flygym, EPFL, Apache 2.0.