Book review: FLIES – The Natural History and Diversity of Diptera Stephen A. Marshall (2012) Firefly Press Ltd., 616 pp.

The new book, FLIES, tells us a lot about what gnats and their relatives have to tell us about nature, would we but listen attentively. The author, Stephen Marshall, began his biological interests in beetles and then somehow went to the dark side, FLIES. This reviewer began his career in beetles and stayed put; that is what qualifies him as a reviewer of this simply superb book Steve Marshall has produced both in text and images. Why? It’s in the subtitle: the Natural History and Diversity of Diptera, the key word being diversity by which Marshall means many different kinds. Beetles and parasitic wasps are universally touted as the hyper-diverse and divergent groups of insects, so why does Marshall claim that Flies also exhibit such diversity in the natural world? In doing so, he sets himself apart from ZooKeys 261: 85–86 (2013)