Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Annelie Geissler

SUPER FLY

Jonathan Balcombe

The Unexpected Lives of the World's Most Successful Insects

Flies may be the most successful group of animals on Earth. Their numbers are exceeded only by ants, and in diversity they are poised to dethrone beetles, with 1,600 new species being discovered yearly.

SUPER FLY, by ethologist and critically acclaimed author Jonathan Balcombe, presents a glittering extravaganza of the improbable, audacious, and miraculous ways that flies get on in a world that otherwise only seems to be run by humans. Flies' astonishing constellation of lifestyles finds them inhabiting deserts, oceans, polar regions, even petroleum deposits. The cheese skipper is named for its maggots' role in ripening a type of sheep's milk cheese produced for centuries in Sardinia. Notoriously, these paragons of parasitism also invade the bodies of countless hosts. Some intrepid flies prey on injured ants, then use the decapitated head capsule as a safe haven. Another shacks up in the leg joints of a spider where, sometimes years later, the developed larvae induce the spider to obligingly spin a protective web that provides shelter for the flies' pupal stage. Much to our chagrin, it is flies, most notably mosquitoes, that have opted enthusiastically for another form of parasitism: stealing blood, with consequences ranging from annoying to dire. But we have much to thank flies for. Without their janitorial services we would soon be awash with organic waste, and disease, and squalor would run rampant. Fly pollinators are crucial to global food supplies, and as members of food webs, flies are indispensable as consumer and consumed. Even forensics gets a fly boost; the presence of their larvae has helped solve hundreds of murder cases and exonerated many falsely accused. Drawing on biology, history, culture, and personal experiences, SUPER FLY book inspires wonder at the diversity, complexity, and success of flies, and raises awareness that our very existence hinges on a network of interacting species. Jonathan Balcombe was born in England, raised in New Zealand and Canada, and has lived in the United States since 1987. He is a biologist with a PhD in ethology, the study of animal behavior. He is the author of four popular science books on the inner lives of animals, including Pleasurable Kingdom, Second Nature, and What a Fish Knows, a New York Times bestseller. He has published over 60 scientific papers and book chapters on animal behavior and animal protection.

Available products
Book Published 2020-11-01 by Penguin Books

Comments

China: Yilin Press ; Japan: Newton ; Korea: Sangsagsquare ; Russia: Azbooka-Atticus

His delightful writing reveals the wonder and beauty present in the world of these small creatures.

In my view, the first thoroughly readable, enjoyable and scholarly work on the subject.

It is utterly fascinating, written with clear prose, a delightful sense of humour, and by a gifted naturalist and story teller. And Jonathan Balcombe not only writes with authority about the incredible diversity of fly species, but with a real love for these fascinating winged beings that play such an important role in the tapestry of life.

Balcombe has done it again. He's peeled back our assumptions about a class of maligned creature and shown us there is wonder, majesty, and even poetry to find inside flies. I left this book hypnotized by the celestial blues Balcombe illuminated in flies' eyes; I was delighted to learn of flies' status as unsung pollinators, as forensic tools, as secret codes in fine art. This book has so many gifts for nature lovers, engineers, poets, and tired old souls hoping to rekindle their love of the world

In vivid prose, Balcombe perfectly illustrates the complexity of the natural world.

In SUPER FLY, animal behaviorist Jonathan Balcombe zooms in on the fascinating world of flies like no one else has. Jonathan writes in such an engaging and often humorous manner, I never thought I would say this about a book on flies: But I loved this book!

Something of a revelation... Balcombe's book does more than unfold surprising facts about flies. The effect of being keyed into this miniature world is an uneasy feeling of double vision. Where once flies might have represented tedium or torment, SUPER FLY unveils an existence that is not necessarily simpler for merely being smaller.