The first time I saw a flower fly, I natural thought it was a bee.
The second time I saw one, I also thought it was a bee.
Third time – “OK, that has to be a bee.”
Fourth time – “Definitely a bee.”
After about twenty or so, I finally got one right on the first try.
It never fails. Whenever we have any fruit in the house, not five minutes following the missus pouring herself a glass of her favorite pinot, I hear her utter a mild oath under her breath and notice that she’s playing lifeguard to a floundering Drosophila melanogaster. “Why do these things have to exist?” she exasperatedly exclaims […]
Dr. Erica McAlister knows quite a lot about flies – something that she no doubt finds handy as Collections Manager for Diptera, Siphonaptera, Archnida and Myriapoda at the Natural History Museum. So as you might expect, news of her forthcoming book “The Secret Life of Flies” has been greeted with great excitement by naturalists around the world.