Science Visualized Life

Certain young fruit flies’ eyes literally pop out of their head

The first “biological portrait” of Pelmatops flies reveals how their eyes really stand out

A male fruit fly with a long skinny red body and long dark eyestalks with red tips, stands on a leaf

With eyeballs sticking out at the end of extravagant stalks on its head, a long skinny male fruit fly (Pelmatops tangliangi) prowls shrubbery after the swift and weird extension of its eyes.

Yong Wang

By Susan Milius

Body changes at the brink of adulthood can get awkward in humans, but at least our eyes don’t pop out of our heads on stalks longer than our legs.