Hoverfly resources part 1 Books

 I intend to make this beginners guide as straightforward as possible. To that end I will do some short posts covering resources, equipment and courses for home and field use.

Let's start with the books I use.

The original is definitely British Hoverflies by Alan Stubbs and Steven Falk. It's a weighty tomb but stuffed full of keys, drawings and information. Until recently it was the go-to publication but I have only just got round to buying a copy to give me an alternative source if I get stuck.

The two I use most are, firstly the excellent Wildguide to Hoverflies of Britain and Ireland by Stuart Ball and Roger Morris.

This builds on the keys used in the Stubbs one and the third addition uses photos and diagrams to identify many of the British species. I say many because not all can be done from photos as we will see later in this series.

My other go-to is now the Hoverflies of Britain and North West Europe by Sander Bot and Frank Van de Meutter.

                                  This is again photographic and covers more species. 

I particularly like two aspects of this book. The keys start with a simple differentiation based on antennae. This difference can be seen with the naked eye and is straightforward. The original Stubbs keys start with a feature at the front of the thorax which is frankly tricky. I also like the wider range of species though it may be premature to claim a hard identification of certain groups such as the female globetails. Here I follow the advice of Roger Morris and Martin Harvey and leave well alone !

                                                 The final book I bought was this

an excellent addition to the new naturalist series full of really detailed explanations of Hoverfly life cycles, ecology and anatomy. Frankly I found some of it hard going, and lets be honest here, I have a masters degree in Entomology. If I find it tough then my recommendation would still be to buy it; but skip the sections you find hard going. You will still get masses of valuable background information that will help you understand and ultimately enjoy the group more completely.

Ultimately I think you simply cannot have too much knowledge, but take it in bite-sized pieces.