About the Author

Erica McAlister is Curator of Diptera at the Natural History Museum, London. All through her life Erica has been interested in the little things - as a child she kept dead mammals to watch the maggots emerging from them and picked fleas off cats to watch them jumping under a microscope. Erica has studied in France, Australia and Costa Rica and her work with diptera has taken her all around the world. She recently presented the popular BBC Radio 4 series Who's the Pest?.

Reviews

'What really makes the book so engrossing is the weird and - let's be frank - occasionally horrifying behaviours that flies exhibit. There are flies that can eat raw oil and asphalt; others that can survive under the sea, or 5,700 feet down at the bottom of Lake Baikal; and there are even flies in Antarctica, where a quarter-inch midge represents the largest terrestrial animal on the entire continent... The most compelling parts of McAlister's book are gruesome tales... after reading her book it is obvious: flies rock.' The Spectator; 'That flies have secret lives will come as no surprise... And yet among them are marvels of peculiar form and bizarre behaviour. I would love to find antler flies sparring; or a bat fly 'swimming' through the fur of its host; or a giant Texan robberfly feeding on a hummingbird. Instead, if I can keep up with Erica's infectious verve, I will vicariously drink down her rich enthusiasm. I'll need a tough stomach, though.' Book of the month, BBC Wildlife