Unveiling the Fascinating World of Flies with Erica McAlister's 'The Secret Life of Flies'

JestlazzJestlazz: My only criticism is the index is printed so small I had to put reading glasses on over my reading glasses. Apart from that, lovely book

United Kingdom on Aug 23, 2023

David Rodie: Knowledge

United Kingdom on Apr 11, 2023

Leonard: as a young entomologist I found this very enjoyable. I recommend

Germany on Aug 12, 2021

Cap'n Bob: If you think your love life is complicated, just wait until you read about some of these lulus -- males that bring gift-wrapped meals to their lovers to keep them occupied while, you know . . . and many other lurid tales.

Unfortunately, all too many careless typos, many of them listed by other reviewers, make it difficult to concentrate on the juicy tidbits of insect lore. A couple of additional goofs are more quantitative: On page 56, temperature changes expressed in degrees Celsius are converted to Fahrenheit as if they are absolute numbers, resulting in laughably incorrect figures. And on pages 148-149, the author's calculator must have blown a gasket, making her estimate of a human's jump relative to that of a gnat larva too great by a factor of almost 100. These mistakes, added to the dozens of grammatical, technical, and punctuation errors, make it obvious that no copy editor ever saw this text before its publication. We can only hope that omission is rectified before the next edition of this marvelous book.

United States on Jul 25, 2021

Buffalo_Stuck_In_TX: Very enjoyable read for an amateur naturalist. Various facts I learned in the book sent me into different learning tangents. Thank you

United States on Mar 30, 2021

David B Richman: The order Diptera makes up one of the four largest orders of insects, the others being Coleoptera (beetles), Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps) and Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). Of these the Diptera is held in the least regard - they bite us, they plague our picnics, they transmit or carry dangerous microorganisms and viruses, and they attack our crops. However there is another side to flies because they also serve as food for many animals we like (birds, reptiles, amphibians, dragonflies, and others) and some attack the pests we don't like, such as mosquitoes (yes some other flies eat mosquitoes!). In the Secret Life of Flies, Erica McAlister shows us that flies are not just pests, but fascinating creatures that also can be quite beautiful. The color photos and the lively text are excellent. This is necessary reading for anyone interested in the natural world and flies in particular, even if they don't like flies. Highly recommended.

United States on Aug 28, 2019

Joe Rowlett: I'm reviewing this as a professional entomologist with a keen interest in diptera... so I may be a bit biased. On the whole, this will be an excellent short read for any nature enthusiast looking to learn more about one of the most underappreciated of insect groups. For those looking to get a more advanced discussion, particularly in terms of taxonomy and phylogenetics, Stephen Marshall's fly book is required reading.

As much as I enjoyed the subject matter here, I could have used more of it. For a group as diverse and wide-ranging as flies, the discussion here felt a bit unnecessarily abbreviated. Though there are plenty of excellent illustrations throughout, there were times when a species being discussed could have benefited from a photo. And I did notice a few typos of the taxonomic sort in some chapters. On the whole, these are minor quibbles and shouldn't keep anyone interested in flies away from this book. The world needs more books on this marvelous group.

United States on Aug 24, 2019

Crissy: Provides interesting facts about the natural history of a group of insects that haven't been studied extensively. The author is very enthusiastic about her work and her subject. Contains very good photos of some of the fly species she describes.

United States on Jan 09, 2019

Vertigo: I really wish I could have given this book five stars, but sadly I found there were serious shortcomings. Firstly the format of book itself. It is so small, almost pocket sized, why not the same as another NHM monograph, Jan Beccaloni's 'Arachnids'? Secondly flick through it, and you will find there are many pages without illustrations or diagrams - to many people, 'boring' or 'heavy' would immediately be the thought that sprang to mind, also the bibliography and index are presented in tiny lettering that would do credit to the 'fine print' of a dubious contract. My eyesight is OK, but I needed a magnifying glass to read the bibliography.
Most of the illustrations are great, but there are some of little consequence e.g. two of plants, Aristolochia and Amorphophallus, (if these were sectional showing the fly trapping mechanisms - great, but they don't), another of an empty holotype pin, and then the recently rediscovered 'terrible hairy fly', why show it against the holotype setting where the contrast between the fly and the background makes it indistinct, and in addition only part of the specimen is shown.
Stephen Marshall's weighty volume 'Flies' has hundreds of superb...

United Kingdom on Nov 22, 2017

Brenda W.: (Written by Brenda W's husband who is the amateur entomologist)
Before and during my lifetime there have been a considerable amount of books published at a popular or intermediate level on British butterflies and moths. Well behind in number are books on British Bumblebees, Beetles and Dragonflies but ubiquitous flies (Diptera), where are they? It would seem that to most people, flies are something associated with death and decay, like dead animals, rotten wood, piles of the dark brown stuff or they are ;midges' that bite you with all the inconvenience that can follow. Talking about butterflies is acceptable even welcome but bring up the subject of flies and learn quickly how to kill a conversation and be avoided in future, as 'being a bit peculiar'. In consequence, the number of books at popular or intermediate level on flies in general, published in the last 100 or so years would probably only take up about 15 inches of shelf space in an average, private, entomological library! Even the now august New Naturalist series has yet to publish its first book specifically on flies.
Then along comes Erica Macalister with all the credentials of a Senior Dipterist but instead of...

United Kingdom on Aug 03, 2017