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Mila'sExotic Plants & CuriositiesA living collection by Luminary OdditiesLuminary Oddities · Natural history & art
Teleopsis dalmanni
Diptera / Diopsidae
Teleopsis dalmanni bears eyes and antennae on elongated lateral head stalks. Males develop a much greater eyespan than females; this difference is associated with mate choice and reproductive traits.
Read the species accountThe compound eyes and antennae sit at the ends of stalks extending sideways from the head. Male eyespan is strongly exaggerated relative to the female, producing a conspicuous difference in head proportions. [1]
Malaysian field records include 12 sites along or near the small Gombak road through mountainous rainforest. [3]
A laboratory experiment examined adult males aged 1–30 days. Thoracic, abdominal and total body mass increased with age, while flight capacity improved as the flight motor developed. [4]
Females prefer males with larger eyespan. In a controlled study, male eyespan predicted accessory-gland and testis length more effectively than body size alone, and females housed with large-eyespan males had higher fertility than those housed with small-eyespan males. [2]
The wild-population study linked smaller male eyespan with more female-biased broods associated with X-linked meiotic drive. This is a genetic system that distorts inheritance and consequently brood sex ratios. The association provides a possible route by which mate preference can reduce mating with drive-carrying males; it does not mean that every small male carries the same genotype. [3]
In the 2023 male flight experiment, males with longer eyespan were heavier and had larger wings and thoraces. Maximum flight capacity and wing kinematics were generally independent of eyespan. [4]
BMC Genomics 10:361 · Accessed 2026-10-13
BMC Evolutionary Biology · Accessed 2026-10-13
Heredity · Accessed 2026-10-13
Frontiers in Ethology · Accessed 2026-10-13
GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · Accessed 2026-10-13
Sources checked 2026-10-13. Illustrations · Luminary Oddities.
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