I look after an enormous variety of collections: fragile flowers and robust rocks. Spectacular spirit specimens in jars and innumerous impressive insects – there are more than 250,000 specimens in Plymouth’s collection, covering the vast spectrum of life’s incredible diversity.
Like all curators in regional museums, I am learning something new every day about the specimens in my care. My background is geology, so I know a lot about rocks, minerals and fossils. I am pretty confident with mammals. I have learned quite a bit about the amazing world of beetles and marine creatures since starting work in Plymouth several years ago.
But, I confess, I knew next to nothing about flies. I knew that they are sick over their food, thanks to Jeff Goldblum in the classic 1986 film The Fly: the sick breaks down the food into a mush, then the fly sucks it up like a protein milkshake.
That’s all I knew. Until now. I read this book about flies. That’s right: a whole book all about flies. This may sound like the driest, dullest thing you could think of. But you would be wrong.
The Secret Lives of Flies is a true delight to read. It is passionately written by Erica McAlister, a curator at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London. And perhaps there is no better person to write a book on flies for a general audience. McAlister has been researching flies at the NHM for more than a decade. She runs events, gives talks and appears on radio and television to show off these under-appreciated little mini-beasts. Even her Twitter handle (@flygirlNHM) couldn’t be more appropriate.
I’ll admit I was a bit dubious about a book all about flies. How much could someone write about these insects and would it be interesting enough for me to want to finish it? It turns out there’s an awful lot of really cool things about flies. Gross stories, romantic stories (well, fly romance), and personal touches, that made me chuckle from beginning to end.
The book is broken up into 10 main chapters. Each focuses nicely on the lives of different types of flies, from vegetarians to pollinators. I discovered that not all flies are sick on their food. With more than 160,000 different species so far described (and over 9,000 in Britain), this is a surprisingly enormous group.
We learn about life cycles, the science, the naming of names, economic impacts, all effortlessly intertwined in different chapters.
One of the wonderful things about the book was how much I learned without realising it. It is written in an engaging style and is accessible to a general (non-fly specialist) reader.
Beautifully detailed close-up images fill the book. What is quite remarkable is how different flies look from one another. The huge eyes and wasp-like legs of timber flies; the freaky wingless, eyeless bat fly; the elegance of the hairy bee-fly, are just a few incredible examples. Seeing them up close shows not only their otherworldly beauty, but also how intricate these creatures are.
This isn’t a textbook: this is a book written by someone who loves flies and wants to share that love. You can feel McAlister’s passion throughout. Quirky anecdotes abound, unravelling the truly fascinating lives of these little creatures.
We like stories in museums. Events, displays, and talks are all full of stories that gives visitors a sense of wonderment with our collections. More so if they are relevant. One of the great things about this book is discovering our relationship with flies, and why studying them is so important.
My favourite example of the importance of flies to humans relates to chocolate. There are just a few species of flies, the wonderfully named No See Ums, that pollinate the cocoa tree, as the tree and the flies have evolved together. Without flies there would be no chocolate. Think about that for a second.
Jan Freedman is the curator of natural history at Plymouth Museums, Galleries, Archives
Like all curators in regional museums, I am learning something new every day about the specimens in my care. My background is geology, so I know a lot about rocks, minerals and fossils. I am pretty confident with mammals. I have learned quite a bit about the amazing world of beetles and marine creatures since starting work in Plymouth several years ago.
But, I confess, I knew next to nothing about flies. I knew that they are sick over their food, thanks to Jeff Goldblum in the classic 1986 film The Fly: the sick breaks down the food into a mush, then the fly sucks it up like a protein milkshake.
That’s all I knew. Until now. I read this book about flies. That’s right: a whole book all about flies. This may sound like the driest, dullest thing you could think of. But you would be wrong.
The Secret Lives of Flies is a true delight to read. It is passionately written by Erica McAlister, a curator at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London. And perhaps there is no better person to write a book on flies for a general audience. McAlister has been researching flies at the NHM for more than a decade. She runs events, gives talks and appears on radio and television to show off these under-appreciated little mini-beasts. Even her Twitter handle (@flygirlNHM) couldn’t be more appropriate.
I’ll admit I was a bit dubious about a book all about flies. How much could someone write about these insects and would it be interesting enough for me to want to finish it? It turns out there’s an awful lot of really cool things about flies. Gross stories, romantic stories (well, fly romance), and personal touches, that made me chuckle from beginning to end.
The book is broken up into 10 main chapters. Each focuses nicely on the lives of different types of flies, from vegetarians to pollinators. I discovered that not all flies are sick on their food. With more than 160,000 different species so far described (and over 9,000 in Britain), this is a surprisingly enormous group.
We learn about life cycles, the science, the naming of names, economic impacts, all effortlessly intertwined in different chapters.
One of the wonderful things about the book was how much I learned without realising it. It is written in an engaging style and is accessible to a general (non-fly specialist) reader.
Beautifully detailed close-up images fill the book. What is quite remarkable is how different flies look from one another. The huge eyes and wasp-like legs of timber flies; the freaky wingless, eyeless bat fly; the elegance of the hairy bee-fly, are just a few incredible examples. Seeing them up close shows not only their otherworldly beauty, but also how intricate these creatures are.
This isn’t a textbook: this is a book written by someone who loves flies and wants to share that love. You can feel McAlister’s passion throughout. Quirky anecdotes abound, unravelling the truly fascinating lives of these little creatures.
We like stories in museums. Events, displays, and talks are all full of stories that gives visitors a sense of wonderment with our collections. More so if they are relevant. One of the great things about this book is discovering our relationship with flies, and why studying them is so important.
My favourite example of the importance of flies to humans relates to chocolate. There are just a few species of flies, the wonderfully named No See Ums, that pollinate the cocoa tree, as the tree and the flies have evolved together. Without flies there would be no chocolate. Think about that for a second.
Jan Freedman is the curator of natural history at Plymouth Museums, Galleries, Archives
