Stalk-Eyed Fly Research Group, UCL

 

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Dr. Mihály Földvári

Research Interests:

As a Marie Curie fellow at UCL I am interested in the evolution and sexual selection of stalk eyed flies (Diopsidae) and I am trying to answer questions by studying the genetics and behaviour of diopsids.

Evidence from the field and laboratory shows that females prefer to mate with males that have the largest eyespan. It is thought that male eyespan acts as a signal of male genetic quality, as this sexually exaggerated trait exhibits heightened condition dependent expression. Teleopsis dalmanni is emerging as one of the key model systems for studying sexual selection driven by female mate preference and features as a key species in many popular textbooks. I will measure and map genetic variation in the stalk-eyed fly, T. dalmanni. My goal is to map genetic variation in male eyespan of stalk-eyed flies across natural populations. I will initially concentrate on a population from the Gombak valley in Malaysia as this was the source for a laboratory based study of genetic variation. I will also investigate a distantly related population of T. dalmanni, to establish whether the same set of genetic loci contribute to genetic variation in eyespan in an evolutionarily divergent population. I will cross individuals from these two natural populations to establish which quantitative genetic loci have contributed to evolutionary divergence between populations.

Selected Publications:

De Meyer, M. & Földvári, M. (2008) Contribution to the Pipunculidae (Diptera) fauna of Mozambique. Journal of Afrotropical Zoology. 4, 81–84. PDF

Skevington, J.H. & Földvári, M. (2007) Revision of Fijian Tomosvaryella Aczél (Diptera: Pipunculidae). Fiji Arthropods. 8, 27–40. PDF

Földvári, M., Pomiankowski, A., Cotton, S. and Carr, M. (2007) A morphological and molecular description of a new Teleopsis species (Diptera; Diopsidae) from Thailand. Zootaxa. 1620, 37–51. PDF

Papp, L., Merz, M. and Földvári, M. (2006) Diptera of Thailand. A summary of the families and genera with references to the species representations. Acta zoologica Academiae Scientiarum hungaricae. 52 (2–3), 97–269. PDF

Carr, M., Cotton, S., Földvári, M. and Kotrba, M. (2006): A description of a new species of Diasemopsis (Diptera, Diopsidae) from the Comoro Islands with morphological, molecular and allometric data. Zootaxa. 1211, 1–19. PDF

Papp, L. and Földvári, M. (2002): A new genus and three new species of Hybotidae with new records of the Hungarian Empidoidea (Diptera). Acta zoologica Academiae Scientiarum hungaricae. 47 (2001), 349–361. PDF

Földvári, M. and De Meyer, M. (2000). Revision of Central and West European Tomosvaryella Aczél species (Diptera, Pipunculidae). Acta zoologica Academiae Scientiarum hungaricae. 45 (1999), 299–334. PDF

Papp, L., Földvári, M. and Paulovics, P. (1997): Sphyracephala europaea sp. n. (Diptera: Diopsidae) from Hungary represents a family new to Europe. Folia entomologica hungarica. 58, 137–146. PDF