My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I think that if you read the 436 highlights and ten notes that I made while reading this book, you will have a pretty good idea of what is inside. The first third of the book was disappointing to me because it read like a term paper. But once the author got into the science, cultural history of our human life with flies, and the life histories of specific species my interest rose exponentially.
As I photograph more flies, I learn that there are more species than I ever imagined. Reading about the genera that I have shot helps me understand where I live better than knowing the bees that live here. Sadly, I'm also learning that my observations on iNaturalist may never be research grade because identifying an individual fly down to species is difficult, sometimes impossible, with so many species.
I enjoyed a romp with anthropomorphization and with the words "pest" and its companion, "weed." Even my recent interest in phobias was whetted: which phobias are innate? Spider and snake phobias are, apparently. This is the second book in which I have read this claim. Humans are not born afraid of insects. We are taught to fear them.
For those who fear them and cannot recover, consider this quotation before you kill them:
Gail Anderson shared with me a blunt perspective uniquely fitting a forensic entomologist: “Without carrion insects we’d be dead. The Earth would have used up its nutrients a long time ago. We are all bags of nutrients, and flies recycle those nutrients back to the Earth. This not only stops disease from lingering, but it provides plants with their food. Life continues.”
I'm now looking forward to photographing and documenting as many fly genera as possible on my land. And not just the beautiful long-legged flies, deer flies, dance flies, tiger flies, flower flies, and gruesome tachinid flies. I'll try to document any that I see. Thank you, Mr. Balcombe.
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| A long-legged fly from the past season |
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Thanks for the recommendation. Sounds like a book I need to get my hands on.
ReplyDeleteThat does sound like an interesting collection.
ReplyDeleteI agree they are most important, and i also believe it is most important that they stay out of my kitchen while i'm cooking or feeding people.
ReplyDelete