I found another fantastic fly with long eye stalks! Although this guy looks very similar in appearance to members of the Diopsidae (Stalk-eyed Flies Family) it belongs to the family Tephritidae (commonly called Peacock Flies) a group of colourful fruit-flies that do not usually have stalk eyes, so I was told. These photos were taken at the same place where I photographed my first "eye-stalked fly" (see my earlier post Fantastic Fly).
My neice said it looks like a motorcycle (with the eye-stalks as the handles)! So maybe Mat Rempit* Fly or Hell's Angel Fly! I used to think of them as "hammerhead" flies.
I hope some Dipterist (=fly scientist) would see this post and enlighten us on the identity of this fantastic insect.
*Mat Rempit is the Malay word describing the daredevil (illegal) motorbikes racers that plague the streets in many cities and towns in Malaysia.
that sir is an amazing find! i love this blog :)
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThis is a fly from the family Tephritidae. To be sure one has to study an intact specimen under the microscope, but I have seen similar flies from Peninsular Malaysia.
Diopsids always have their antennae at the tip of the eye-stalks, in this case they are in the middle.
Good pictures!
Hi Misi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction and info re the flies.
Highly appreciated.
Joe
A very interesting looking bug! Never seen anything like that before!
ReplyDeletegreat capture
ReplyDeleteTruly amazing!
ReplyDeleteWe have nothing looking like this in Europe!
Hi, my name is Ivy, a Life Science student from National University of Singapore (NUS).
ReplyDeleteI am currently taking a module which required us to research on a species and do a wiki-like species page for it (evolution.science.nus.edu.sg/) . I choose to work with stalk-eyed flies.
In the process of search, I came across your blog. I would like to ask if it is possible to use your photo of stalk-eyed Tehpritidae(the motor-cycle flies) for my species page? I am trying to let my audience know that apart from Diopsidae, there are other flies with stalks too.
Please be ensure that the species page will be for non-commercial purposes, and ALL images used in the page will be properly be cited.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Thank you!