This begs the question: what is a flower? How would you describe a flower to an alien who has never seen a flower? Flowers come in such a variety of colors, shapes, sizes and smells that defining a flower in terms of its sensory features is actually a difficult task. However, my colleagues and I have discovered that hoverflies are born with an innate attraction to certain colors, shapes and smells that helps them identify flowers in the midst of our complex natural landscape.
So there we have it. Hoverflies are likely born with an innate "sensory template" of a flower encoded in their brains. However, this research project extends beyond the seemingly small world of flowers and flies. I hope to shed light on the nature of reality, which is no more or less than a construction of the brain through which it is processed. Your reality of a flower is different from mine, which is different from a hoverfly's. And perhaps, with a little luck, I can tweak the reality that a creature experiences by tweaking its brain. Can a leopard change its spots? Can a hoverfly change the reality of a flower encoded in its brain at birth? In short, can I use my experiments to alter something crucially innate?
Thousands of different hoverfly species exist, and most of them mimic bees and wasps. This phenomenon of Batesian mimicry, in which a harmless animal imitates the appearance of a dangerous animal, helps deter predators from eating the innocent hoverfly. I work with a hoverfly species called Eristalis tenax, and it disguises itself as a bee.
