A cage containing male mosquitoes has a small earphone placed on top, through which the sound of a female mosquito is played. All the males immediately fly to the earphone and thrust their abdomens through the fabric of the cage. What is the best explanation for this behavior?
A) The males learn to associate the sound with females.
B) Copulation is a fixed action pattern, and the female flight sound is a sign stimulus that initiates it.
C) The sound from the earphone irritates the male mosquitoes, causing them to attempt to sting it.
D) The reproductive drive is so strong that when males are deprived of females, they will attempt to mate with anything that has even the slightest female characteristic.
E) Through classical conditioning, the male mosquitoes have associated the inappropriate stimulus from the earphone with the normal response of copulation.
Answer: B