#62
Stalk-eye Flies (Teleopsis sp.) mating by
PF T.J., on Flickr
I was lucky enough to find and observe a mating pair recently
Stalk-eye Flies, as the name suggest, have very long eye-stalks (yes, those are the eyes on the far left and right
).
The males (on top) tend to have much longer eye stalks, which acts as a prerequisite to "tackle" the females (bottom).
Males and females tend to rub their forelegs together (also in my Flickr account), which I suspect it to be a mode for stridulation- calling out for a mate.
When a pair of male and female are close together, the male will bend its body low while using its forelegs to continuously tap the surface of the leaf as a sign for mating.
When mating, the male steps on top of the female. The forelegs of the male are put on the "V-shaped" abdominal spines of the female (so that's what its for lol
)
PS: These flies are a nightmare to photograph up-close due to their very weird body shape!
*For more photos and guides on Macro Photography, please check out my blog:
http://pixelsdimension.com/This post has been edited by [PF] T.J.: Sep 16 2014, 05:53 PM