These are the *nice* flies

Hoverflies (a.k.a. flower flies) are relatively small, brightly colored flies that live on nectar, don't sting, don't carry any tropical diseases, and play an important role as pollinators of flowers. They also espouse a variety of rather strange behaviour, including long-distance migrations, egg-laying in heavily polluted waters, and territorial defense. And they look like bees, wasps or bumblebees!

So how come there doesn't seem to be any popularized books on hoverflies???

When I searched Amazon, the only very vaguely popularized books that came up where "British Hoverflies" by Stubbs and Falk (this book), and "Hoverflies" by Gilbert. Both books are unreasonably over-priced here at Amazon.com, so please check out Amazon.com.uk instead. "British Hoverflies" can also be purchased from there (I did).

Please note that I said "very vaguely popularized". You probably have to be a not-so-budding hoverfly nerd to really like these books. And if you are, you probably have them in your backpack already! Gilbert's book contain some interesting information on hoverfly habits, but it's very short, more a pamphlet than a book. "British Hoverflies" is much longer but it's a very specialized identification guide. It's also very dated. My edition is from 1983. It covers all 250 British species, and illustrates 190 of them. The species presentations are rather short, and contain the following: a description of the traits necessary for identification, information about habitat and range, and approximate time of the year when the species in question flies. There is also an extensive identification key. The colour plates are all at the back of the book.

I'm sure the local dipterist enthusiasts somewhere in Kent or Somerset actually use this book. However, it wasn't quite what I was looking for. I wanted something about hoverflies along the lines of "Bees of the World" or "The Magpies", two natural science books I review elsewhere. It's a pity that the only *nice* flies don't have a popularizer (yet).

Any takers?