Figure 1

Diagram of 32-channel courtship song recording apparatus. A male and female are introduced into the courtship arena, which has a 5 mm diameter floor, through 2 mm holes in the top piece on either side of a movable steel septum. The chamber is fitted into the acrylic platform, positioning the flies immediately above the 9.7 mm diameter microphone, and the septum is slid back to allow the male and female to interact. Signals from the 32 microphones are amplified on a custom circuit board, converted to digital signals with a National Instruments Data Acquisition Board and recorded on the computer.