From an expert in animal consciousness, a book that will turn the fly on the wall into the elephant in the room.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.

TALENTED AUTHOR: Jonathan Balcombe's empathetic look at fish in his previous book, What a Fish Knows, made him a finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson award and attracted praise from the everone from Elizabeth Kolbert to the Dalai Lama.FASCINATING SUBJECT: As we have seen from Timothy Winegard's The Mosquito, flies have occupied an outsize role in human history, and here Balcombe shows how they've been overlooked in their role in shaping biology on a global scale.INCREASING AWARENESS: Given their presence in every ecosystem in the world, flies are a key indicator species for determining environmental health, and there in increasing attention paid to the insect armageddon occuring in ecosystems around the world.