Hoverflies of Britain and North-West Europe: A Photographic guide
Sander Bot and Frank Van de Meutter.
Bloomsbury Wildlife (pbk) published 2023.
400 pages, 1797 colour photos, illustrations, and distribution maps.
ISBN 978-1-3994-0245-3
With Christmas drawing closer you might be looking for that special gift to give a budding naturalist or entomologist, well stick around this might that book.
Hoverflies of Britain and North-West Europe is the book I take with me everywhere, when going out for a bit of hoverfly spotting. It is available both in print and digitally, but for the purposes of this review I will be just referring to the printed version.
In my opinion this book is the next level up from the WILDguides book by Ball and Morris, please click to see my review. The reason I make this judgment is that it covers all 400 hoverfly species both UK and Northwest Europe. Having the continental species in this book, allows for vagrants to now appear on my list, especially if climate change continues along current trends. I have not long watched a video from the London Natural History Society that highlights new entomological species being accidentally introduced or have found their way into the UK, so it's something I will be keeping an eye on for hoverflies in coming years. It was only less than 10 years since I had to travel to London to spot a Greater Hornet Plumehorn (Volucella zonaria), now I get them regularly in my South Yorkshire garden.
Keys within natural history books are becoming a little redundant these days, and I can appreciate why. The clever way the authors have implemented them here however makes them much easier to use; each dichotomous listing being photographically illustrated. The advantage of this approach is that it takes away the need to learn all the terminology and leaves you in no doubt whether it could be a or b, see below as an example. In the field, the key lets me quickly and easily identify whether it's species x or y in just a few steps. However, you'll need to know which of the six keys to begin with and have a general sense of which tribe it belongs to, so beginners may struggle but should try.
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| I refer to the above species as Glasswings & Scaeva Pyrastri as White-Clubbed not bowed - see article. |
All species of hoverfly in this book have both scientific and English names, the latter being a first for a book available in the UK. The acknowledgements, at the front of the book, disclose that both Steven Falk (UK) and Jeff Skevington (North America) were consulted on the nomenclature, especially where hoverflies are known to both continents. I am unfamiliar with J.Skevington, but Steven I do know and have met him personally. Unfortunately, they will probably both disagree with some of my naming conventions used throughout my blogging site or to be disclosed in forthcoming articles, as I attempt to introduce my common names. Only time will tell whether my names become popularised, I do hope so as a lot of thought has gone into them, as no doubt the authors of this book did also.
For each of the 400 species:
i. Male and female photographs are provided, along with distinguishable features that aid identification.
ii. A written account for each hoverfly of the identifiable and distinguishable features, which can be a little over descriptive, but necessary.
iii. Similar species - specifying differences that distinguish them from others, which can be helpful and reduce misidentification.
iv. Occurrence which can be a little vague.
v. Ecology - which offers something most other books don’t cover too well, and it just shows how much has been discovered about hoverflies in the last 40 years. Despite ongoing research, knowledge about certain species is still however limited, which underscores how much we have yet to learn about them. As a result, there is often a significant gap between the conclusion of the species account and the phenology bars and maps. Something that hopefully will be filled up in future editions, even if it’s just a photo of the larva or more information about its lifecycle.
Although the photographs feature pinned specimens instead of live ones, which some may find less appealing, I value that most images were taken from museum collections. What I think the authors greatest achievement in putting together a book of this magnitude is their attention to detail, they really emphasise each hoverfly’s key features. However, I do have to confess that all year I have been trying to identify Eupeodes species from the abdominal underside with nil returns on E.corollae. So, I am not convinced this feature is a defining species feature. Comment below if you have had similar findings.
The front of the book has a 10-page introduction which I will briefly summarise below:
- Is it a hoverfly – a 6-page spread, five of which have large photographs illustrating the key parts of a hoverfly. No definition or explanations only labels are provided to each hoverfly part - head, thorax and abdomen etc. The preceding text explains what makes a hoverfly using observation of its wings, eyes, antenna as well as other key features. This helps you if you are a beginner to identifying hoverflies from other similar diptera and non-dipteran species, which most hoverflies aim to mimic.
- Finding Hoverflies – tips and tricks to help find hoverflies, under the headers; ‘Flowery places’, ‘Foodplants – know your ecology!’, Weather, ‘Best season’ and ‘Specific bahaviours’ which delves into ‘hill topping’ and ‘sap run species’. All very fascinating to read.
- Hoverflies as a way to evaluate and appreciate the environment – a short succinct message to us all of what we could lose if we don’t act soon.
- Identifying hoverflies – include sections on photography, catching and ‘collecting and curating’.
- Is collecting still necessary – here the authors discuss the merits and disadvantages of collecting, briefly discussing both sides of the argument.
- Creation of this guide – Emphasises the lengths the authors went to just to get all the details they have crammed into this book. Truly a magnificent achievement, which humbles me for criticising the spaces they left on some species. It's incredible to consider that producing just one perfectly sharp image of certain flies required taking more than 200 separate photographs.
Who would I recommend this book to:
- Any entomologist or amateur naturalist looking to expand into hoverflies.
- Anyone who is an avid hoverfly spotter and hopes to find continental species.
- Anyone who is struggling with species identification from written text and would prefer a more photographic guide.
- It is always good to have three books to use when unsure of Identifications, and I would have this book as one of those three to consult.
- Anyone that takes holidays on the continent or within UK and Ireland. It is a weighty book for travel so you may struggle where weight is a premium, so maybe the digital version would be of better assistance when aboard. Same price as physical copy when I purchased my copy.
Final thoughts:
This is a superb book, crafted with thought as evidenced by how the keys are set out and by the effort to include 400 hoverfly species. It would make a perfect gift for any naturalist or entomologist. As I have previously mentioned I have grown into this book, so I would not necessarily recommend it for a beginner. If you are a beginner, I would suggest Creed or Ball & Morris for UK hoverflies or Hoverflies of Northwest Europe by M.P. Van Veen for continental Europe. I was delighted when this book came on the market in 2023 and it has not been far from my side ever since. It has re-kindled my joy of hoverfly spotting, to a time when I first went out on hoverflies adventures with my 1st Edition of Britain’s hoverflies. Now I have new species to seek and spot, I will keep you posted on any I find, so watch this space
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