The brain can eat: establishing the existence of a central pattern generator for feeding in third instar larvae of Drosophila virilis and Drosophila melanogaster.

To establish the existence of a central pattern generator for feeding in the larval central nervous system of two Drosophila species, the gross anatomy of feeding related muscles and their innervation is described, the motor units of the muscles identified and rhythmic motor output recorded from the isolated CNS. The cibarial dilator muscles that mediate food ingestion are innervated by the frontal nerve. Their motor pathway projects from the brain through the antennal nerves, the frontal connectives and the frontal nerve junction. The mouth hook elevator and depressor system is innervated by side branches of the maxillary nerve. The motor units of the two muscle groups differ in amplitude: the elevator is always activated by a small unit, the depressor by a large one. The dorsal protractors span the cephalopharyngeal skeleton and the body wall hence mediating an extension of the CPS. These muscles are innervated by the prothoracic accessory nerve. Rhythmic motor output produced by the isolated central nervous system can simultaneously be recorded from all three nerves. The temporal pattern of the identified motor units resembles the sequence of muscle contractions deduced from natural feeding behavior and is therefore considered as fictive feeding. Phase diagrams show an almost identical fictive feeding pattern is in both species.