JungleDragon is a nature and wildlife community for photographers, travellers and anyone who loves nature. We're genuine, free, ad-free and beautiful.

Join

Stalk-eyed fly, Diopsidae Sp. Geotagged,Indonesia,Summer Click/tap to enlarge Promoted

Stalk-eyed fly, Diopsidae Sp.

- No description given -

    comments (3)

  1. View Christine Young's profile
    Christine Young
    Lion
    View Lion class
    I love these flies and find them so fascinating. In the species with sexual dimorphism, the males have dramatically longer eye-stalks than the females, who then prefer to mate with the males with the most exaggerated hypercephaly. Males will engage in long battles with each other over mating rights with a female. During these competitions, the winner is the male with the longest eye stalks, who incidentally is also the larger male (allometry). Unfortunately, long eye stalks disrupt the physics of flight, which would be a huge disadvantage to male flies in terms of fitness and survival. But, in order to overcome this potential handicap, males have longer and differently shaped wings than females do, which perfectly balances their bodies to accommodate their longer eye stalks. Isn't nature amazing!

    The fly in your picture appears to be a female because of the short wings and "average" length eye stalks.     Posted 7 years ago
    1. View Ferdy Christant's profile
      Ferdy Christant
      Lion
      View Lion class
      If this is average, then wow. Male competition leading to exaggerated features imho has led to some of the most beautiful species, at least in insects and birds. I do feel for the males sometimes though, for example birds with extremely long and clumsy tails. What's also hilarious is the total anti climax of the male winning, for a moment of about 20 seconds lol. Posted 7 years ago
    2. View SUGIAN1212's profile
      SUGIAN1212
      Lion
      View Lion class
      Thank you Christine Young for your wonderful explanations. Much appreciate it. Posted 7 years ago

Sign in or Join in order to comment.

No species identified

The species on this photo is not identified yet. When signed in, you can identify species on photos that you uploaded. If you have earned the social image editing capability, you can also identify species on photos uploaded by others.

View SUGIAN1212's profile

By SUGIAN1212

All rights reserved
Uploaded Feb 22, 2018. Captured Feb 13, 2018 07:23 in Sunda Wenang-Bojong Gede, Sundawenang, Parung Kuda, Sukabumi, Jawa Barat 43357, Indonesia.
country flag of Indonesia Explore Indonesia 10,751 2,570 0
  • Canon EOS 6D
  • f/16.0
  • 1/99s
  • ISO800
  • 100mm
Captured in the summer. More summer photos.

This photo also appears in

Discover more photo collections