Octopamine, the invertebrate analog of noradrenaline, induces locomotor activity in many invertebrate species. The position and structure of octopamine-synthesising neurons in the brain and ventral nerve cord of larval Drosophila have been documented using the expression patterns of tyrosine decarboxylase (TDC2+). Previous work documents that the larval locomotor network is composed of multiple rhythm generating networks that compete for dominance, with headsweep rhythm generators opposing forward rhythm generators. The role octopamine and TDC2+ neurons play in acute modulation and selection of central pattern generating (CPG) networks has not been well explored. We used a variety of tools to evaluate how exogenous and endogenous octopamine modulates the activity of competing CPG networks in isolated larval central nervous system (CNS) preparations. Here, we show that bath application of octopamine onto isolated 3rd instar Drosophila larvae CNS preparations promotes fictive forward locomotion and fictive headsweeps, while suppressing fictive backward locomotion. Octopamine also accelerates the propagation speed of intersegmental motor patterns. Unexpectedly, octopamine application induced long-lasting fictive headsweeps that persisted for up to 25 minutes after fictive forward promotion. Descending inputs from the brain were required for inducing the fictive headsweep response. Dual-colour imaging of TDC2+ and motor neurons revealed TDC2+ neurons were recruited prior to all fictive activity patterns at varying activity phases. This suggests that TDC2+ neurons are dynamically modulating CPG motor patterns. Currently, we are using optogenetic manipulation of TDC2+ neuron activity to evaluate the functional role of these identified octopaminergic neuron populations in regulating competition between opposing CPG networks.