Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World's Most Successful Insects
Description
From an expert in animal consciousness, a book that will turn the fly on the wall into the elephant in the room. After reading Super Fly, you will never take a fly for granted again. Thank you, Jonathan Balcombe, for reminding us of the infinite marvels of everyday creatures. --Sy Montgomery, Author of How to Be a Good Creature For most of us, the only thing we know about flies is that they're annoying, and our usual reaction is to try to kill them. In Super Fly, the myth-busting biologist Jonathan Balcombe shows the order Diptera in all of its diversity, illustrating the essential role that flies play in every ecosystem in the world as pollinators, waste-disposers, predators, and food source; and how flies continue to reshape our understanding of evolution. Along the way, he reintroduces us to familiar foes like the fruit fly and mosquito, and gives us the chance to meet their lesser-known cousins like the Petroleum Fly (the only animal in the world that breeds in crude oil) and the Chocolate Midge (the sole pollinator of the Cacao tree). No matter your outlook on our tiny buzzing neighbors, Super Fly will change the way you look at flies forever. Jonathan Balcombe is the author of four books on animal sentience, including the New York Times bestselling What A Fish Knows, which was nominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award for Science Writing. He has worked for years as a researcher and educator with the Humane society to show us the consciousness of other creatures, and here he takes us to the farthest reaches of the animal kingdom.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2021-05-25
- 352 pages
- Ebook
- Penguin
Similar books
-
Plant Identification: Creating User-Friendly Field Guides for Biodiversity Management
By William Hawthorne, Anna Lawrence... Farjon et al (A Field Guide to the Pines of Mexico and Central America, 1997) and Timberlake et al (Field Guide to the Acacias of Zimbabwe, 1999).
-
Birds of Maine
By Peter D. Vickery, Charles D. Duncan, Jeffrey V. Wells... counts: several hundred annually at Stratton I. and at E. Egg Rock, ... 15 Jan 2014 (R. Timberlake, eBird); Reid S.P. (Lower Kennebec R. CBC): 1 on 20 ...
-
Wasting the Rain (Routledge Revivals): Rivers, People and Planning in Africa
By William M. Adams AdamsMaltby, E. (1988) Waterlogged Wealth: Why waste the world's wet places? Earthscan, London. ... Timberlake, L. (1985) Africa in Crisis: the causes, ...
-
Plant Identification: Creating User-Friendly Field Guides for Biodiversity Management
By William Hawthorne, Anna Lawrence... E. and K. M. Wong (eds) (1995–ongoing) Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak, FRIM, ... Journal of Biological Education, vol 18, pp293–304 Timberlake J., ...
-
Plant Identification: Creating User-friendly Field Guides for Biodiversity Management
By William Hawthorne, Anna Lawrence, Alan Charles Hamilton... E. and K. M. Wong (eds) (1995–ongoing) Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak, ... pp293–304 Timberlake J., C. Fagg and R. Barnes (1999) Field Guide to the ...
-
Happiness, Well-being and Sustainability: A Course in Systems Change
By Laura Musikanski, Rhonda Phillips, James BradburyFrost's meditations: Eudaemonia, the good life: A talk with Martin Seligman. ... 1, 115–135. doi:10.1007/s42413-018-0012-2 Kahneman, D. & Riis, D. (2005).
-
The Texas Landscape Project: Nature and People
By David A. Todd, Jonathan Ogren... section 2, part 2; Texas Water Code, Section 11.085(s)). ... as the “San Antone Hose” and generated a great deal of opposition in the Colorado basin, ...
-
Essential Environment: The Science Behind the Stories
By -. Pearson, Jay H. Withgott, Matthew LaposataThis is the product access code card for MasteringEnvironmentalScience(tm) with Pearson eText and does not include the actual bound book.
-
Birds of Peru: Revised and Updated Edition
By Thomas S. Schulenberg, Douglas F. Stotz, Daniel F. LaneTodd Mark compiled the data on the material at the Muséum National d'Histoire ... Noam Shany provided a great deal of additional information on seabirds.
-
Finding Our Place in the Solar System: The Scientific Story of the Copernican Revolution
By Todd Timberlake, Paul WallaceDetails the science behind the Copernican Revolution, the transition from the Earth-centered cosmos to a modern understanding of planetary orbits.