Rosemary and Peter Grant

of most families. The holistic approach taken by Marshall is a welcome addition to the field, where work of a synthetic nature has been rare. Having access to all information in one place makes it far easier to see parallels in lifestyles and morphology among the diverse groups that make up the order. Flies is not only for keen dipterists, but is also of relevance to experimental biologists as a whole. The book is full of intriguing glimpses of biological wonders that at best have been examined rudimentarily in the old days and that are now ripe for exploration with contemporary techniques. Which signals trigger the radical metamorphosis of termite flies once they enter termite nests? How is this metamorphosis accomplished and which are the signals emitted by these flies in order not to be evicted from the nests? What is the raison d’être for the spotted and striped eyes of Eristalinus hoverflies? How do you evolve stalked eyes, and how does having these affect visual processing? What is the benefit of looking like a beetle? Why do upside-down flies always maintain a head-down position on vertical surfaces? With the advent of cheap and quick whole-genome sequencing, and improved methods for generating transgenic animals outside established model systems, these questions, and many others, are now (in principle) accessible for in depth analyses. Flies, moreover, have the distinct advantage of being (more or less) closely related to the fly Drosophila melanogaster. Findings from any of the odd creatures depicted in the book could hence be placed in the context of a thoroughly examined model system, and as such could be used to unravel general mechanisms as well as functions of specific genes. Although a number of fly species do indeed cause trouble, the vast majority of flies are upstanding members of the insect community, with little, or no interest for man and his activities. Flies are critical ingredients in the ecosystem, without which we would be living in a much shittier world (literally). Marshall’s Flies will hopefully improve the tarnished reputation of this fascinating group of insects.