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Stalk-eyed Fly — printable fact sheet
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Stalk-eyed Fly
Diopsis longicornis
Stalk-eyed flies (family Diopsidae) carry their eyes and antennae on the ends of long lateral stalks, and in some species the distance between the eyes exceeds the length of the whole body. The stalks are inflated at emergence: the newly moulted fly hangs from its pupal case wit…
Did you know?
- The distance between a male stalk-eyed fly's eyes can be greater than the length of its own body.
- A newly emerged stalk-eyed fly inflates its eyestalks by pumping air through them like a balloon, and it can only do this once. Males settle contests by lining up and comparing eyespan; the loser usually walks away without a fight. Female preference for wide-eyed males is thought to suppress a selfish chromosome that would otherwise skew the population toward all-female broods. In some species the eyestalks are longer than the fly's entire body, which is why they cannot walk through dense vegetation and roost on hanging root hairs instead.
What I learned
Draw the stalk-eyed fly
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