Researchers believe that female fruit flies can zone in on enemies with laser-focus vision.

The study made at Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, found the bugs prioritise their foe by activating specific neural circuits.

Rubin Lab led the research and explored how aggression in female fruit flies affects their visual attention.

They mapped the insects' brain's neural connections, and scientists claimed they discovered that aggression-promoting neurons intersect with pathways that regulate visual input, allowing the flies to concentrate on critical visual cues while blocking out distractions.

The study utilised genetically modified flies and the fruit fly connectome, which claimed to have revealed three distinct mechanisms that modulate vision during aggression, providing insights into how social behaviours, like fighting, are regulated at the neuronal level.