Figure 1.

The Adult Foraging Assay (AFA) for examining locomotion and feeding in adult flies. (A) The AFA testing arena. The entrance is shown in the open position at the center of the arena, and the space for the moat is noted at the edge. The arena is 90mm in radius from the center to the inner edge of the moat. * Denotes the location of the sucrose drops. The dashed circumference lines mark the inner (green), middle (blue) and outer (yellow) zones. The movable opening in the floor attached to the loading arm is shown open in this figure but, once closed, the entire surface of the arena is uniformly white, except for the sucrose drops that were dyed blue to increase visibility. (B) Fly loading arm underneath the arena. The loading arm consists of a 1mL horizontal syringe, with a hole large enough for a single fly to enter, leading into a 5mL vertical syringe, placed within a 10mL vertical syringe. The front ends of both syringes were cut, with the end of the horizontal 1mL syringe leading into a hole at the bottom of the vertical 5mL and 10mL syringes, and the open end of the 5mL syringe leading into the arena. Moving the outer 10mL syringe results of displacement of the holes in the two vertical syringes, closing the entrance into the shaft and preventing the fly from moving backwards. The loading arm is shown in the closed position, when open the plunger is pulled back past the loading entrance.