Flies: The Natural History and Diversity of Diptera

Stephen Marshall has the BEST most reliable insect books. They are easy to use for identification and just plain old interesting books. I own them all. Full of beautiful pictures.

I love the book, it is absolutely the best on the subject. Very satisfied. Thank you so much!

This book is not light reading, nor is it for the squeamish. Flies as vectors of horrific pathogens, flies methods of hunting/feeding; and flies life styles in muck and worse are amazing but gross. But if that's your thing, book is well worth it and a good read. I moved from bird watching to looking more closely at the insect world with my close focus binoculars. People pay a lot of money to go on safaris to see exotic animals and experience the “wild” life of hunter and hunted. You can see all that in some bushes and weeds near your home anywhere. I learned that flies are up there in numbers, in their usefulness and, as mentioned, their challenges. Makes looking at them more worthwhile as I try to discern what I am looking at and what is happening.The book is very technical. I read it through, but with no need to treat it as a text book or to memorize anything. I have read books on insects and other invertebrates so I had some familiarity with many terms. The biggest take away is the diversity of flies: appearances, distribution, feeding strategies, reproduction methods, usefulness/destructiveness. The most interesting perspective is that flies have a basic body plan and many look very alike, but each species has evolved to take advantage of a niche in nature. And they are still evolving and giving us an insight into the forces that make for evolution.Time does not fly (couldn't resist) when reading this book. Takes effort, but worth it.

For a person who would like to know more about flies this is a must have!!! This is the only guide book I have found for flies! It includes information and photographs that makes you understand flies and what they are about!!!

There is NO need to read any reviews about this book, just buy it. It is the best book written about flies ever, and if you have even the slightest interest in this subject: this is your book. Just buy it - do not waste your precious time reading what other people think... I talked with many professional Dipterists, they all agree, it is the best book (and will be for a long time to come)... even E.O. Wilson endorses it, and he is not a fly-guy (he is an ant guy of course, and one of the greatest).. So if you are still reading this, instead of reading the book, let me tell you that this is a BIG book, packed full with the most amazing fly pictures (Steve is just one of the best photographers out there), loaded with knowledge, interesting stories and great insight about flies, their biology, their interactions with other organisms, their role in the universe, and it comes with very useful (and easy to use) keys to the families of flies... Every page reflects Steve's deep passion for this amazing order of insects - and this makes the book a completely infectious read. No matter if you are somebody who has no idea about flies, or a seasoned scientist, after reading this book you will look at flies in a different way.PS look out for Princess Leia (thanks Chris for the hint)...

I find this book tremendously useful as an entomologist and insect taxonomist. I may not work on flies specifically, but I am charged with occasionally identifying some to family or genus. And for those critters that I don't know on sight, this book spares me the need to key out the family (in Borror, Delong and Triplehorn) or genus (Manual of Nearctic Diptera) for the more obvious-looking species.Each family has quite an array of images, and up to 10 images per page (there are LOADS of photos here). For example, there are 12 images of Psychodidae including some of the larvae; 18 images of fungus gnats (Mycetophilidae); and 76 images of Asilidae (robber flies).So if you haven't even an idea of where to start in terms of identifying a distinct-looking fly, this is a great place to start. Although I wouldn't think you'd get anywhere with the duller families (e.g., Muscidae).I LOVE this book. It even makes a great coffee table book even though the images are generally small.

amazing amount of great species photos and information, best reference for diptera

If you hate the flies, please take a time to see this book that deal with a wonderful and diverse world of flies and allies, the order Diptera. Certainly threre are many villains and foes, as the mosquitoes or house flies. But there are thousand of interesting species, as the fruit flies that have contributed so much to genetics, the flower flies, the assain flies and many, many more. Marshall offer a synopsis of most families of World flies, many of them useful for identification surveys. Most pictures are excellent, taken in the field.

Butterflies and beetles are more than adequately covered already, and now at last here is an encyclopaedia weighing more than 6 pounds, exclusively on flies. Magnificent book with an overview of the diversity of fly families with descriptions of their natural histories and loads and loads of photographs of flies worldwide. Make no mistake, however: this is not a coffeetable book, it is a scientific work. Although the introductory chapters are highly readable, the main section (the descriptions of the families) is more technical. At the back there is a section that deals with identifying fly families, complete with keys and clear photographs highlighting identification features. A minor discomfort as far as I am concerned: the index only mentions the family names, so if you want to find a genus you have to know what family it belongs to, and under that family its genera are listed alphabetically. But that shouldn't stop you from buying this excellent book!

A very readable account of Diptera world-wide with emphasis on their diverse structure and family relationships and their equally varied and fascinating life histories. The work is copiously illustrated with excellent photographs of living flies that complement the text and do not serve as mere decoration. The book is sturdily bound and at over 600 pages of large format good quality paper could easily double as a weight-training accessory! In his introduction the author compares it to the venerable book on British flies by Colyer and Hammond in the Warne Wayside and Woodland series. The present work is much wider in scope and with its larger size is able to encompass far more detail of dipteran biology and is of course far better illustrated. An excellent introduction to these insects for serious non-specialists, with a wealth of information that will delight dipterists of all abilities.

This is a large book which describes the diversity of flies throughout the world - and this it does. This is ambitious so the result from a British perspective is that few of the seven thousand British flies can be dealt with when there are one hundred and sixty thousand worldwide. In the pictorial illustration pages there are nine small pictures of flies in their natural habitat with their descriptions per page - too small to see much detail, and a concentration on non-European flies. The chapters on the families, development, etc. apply to flies wherever they are, so are very useful. Overall, it is a pity that there is not a book that deals only with European flies, but there isn't, so this is the best that is available.

Can’t fault the book (hence the 5 stars) but it’s just a shame it arrived damaged.

What a fantastic book - informative, well-illustrated, clearly structured, full of the sorts of bits of information which anyone fascinated by the natural world would revel in.