Eyestalk

Pulmonate land snails usually have two sets of tentacles on their head: the upper pair have an eye at the end; the lower pair are for olfaction.

A stalk-eyed fly

Well-developed eye of Eustrombus gigas on eyestalk. There is a small tentacle on the eyestalk also.

This article is about eyes mounted on stalks. For the instinctive tendency to track prey, see eye-stalking

In anatomy, an eyestalk (sometimes spelled as eye stalk or known as an ommatophore) is a protrusion that extends the eye away from the body, giving the eye a better field of vision. It is a common feature in nature and frequently appears in fiction.

In nature

In nature, eyestalks are sometimes called tentacles, and may also have olfactory organs at the end. Examples include snails, the trilobite superfamily Asaphida, and fly family Diopsidae. The crustacean family Polychelidae have eyestalks but no eye.

In fiction

A beholder is a fictional character that sports numerous vertical eyestalks.^[1]

Many Dalek variants have a horizontal eyestalk.

Grans from Star Wars have eyestalks.

See also

Eyestalk ablation

References