The Fly Trap by Fredrick Sjoberg

As many readers of this blog will know, I have a particular interest in hoverflies, many of which mimic bees or wasps. So I was particularly interested in this book when I saw it mentioned in this post in Whilst Out Walking, one of the Substacks I read. I buy many of my books second hand, but I doubted I would be able to find this one in a charity shop so I went to a local book shop and luckily there was a copy on the shelves. 

The author lives on an island in Sweden and devotes himself to collecting and identifying the hoverflies on that island. He amusingly describes collectors of hoverflies as: "quiet contemplative people [whose] behaviour in the field is relatively aristocratic".He himself first got specifically interested in hoverflies, when accidentally catching one that was an expert mimic of a large bee, which turned out to be very rare in Sweden. 

He discusses whether to use an insect trap or not, though doesn't address the ethics of whether collecting and killing insects is ethical in the current drastic decline in insect numbers. (He actually at a couple of points makes comments that seem oddly dismissive of wider issues of ecology). The discussion about traps leads into a focus on Rene Malaise, the Swedish inventor of the eponymous insect trap, his travels in Kamchatka and his interest in art collecting. 

This book is really a meandering exploration of being a collector, the hoverflies being just the starting point. Luckily (for those of us who already love hoverflies) there are interesting insights into these insects, such as the fact that the Narcissus Fly (Merodon equestris) can be identified by the distinctive sound of its buzzing, I'll definitely need to listen more carefully next time I find one of those! I was also fascinated by the fact that it is: "possible to map the movements of the most peripatetic hoverflies by examining the grains of pollen in their coats and determining where these originated".

Along the way, the book brings in observations on topics from the value of disturbed ground for hoverflies; forensic entomology ("more than 500 species (of insects) may be involved in the decomposition of a large cadaver"), a mention of hoverflies in the Bible and how to tell whether an entomologist loved their partner or whether it was a marriage of convenience ("Check and see if he named any hymenoptera after her. In that case it was true love").

The book also includes a challenge, one that as a poet and hoverfly fan I feel bound to attempt: "what poet writes verses in honour of the narcissus fly? Or of any hoverfly at all?"

Originally published in Swedish in around 2005, the book was translated into English by Thomas Teal and published in hardback in 2014 and in paperback in 2015.

The Fly Trap by Fredrick Sjoberg, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal published (2015) by Penguin. 

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If you're in the British Isles and want to learn to identify hoverflies, I'd recommend Hoverflies of Britain and Ireland, a Field Guide by Stuart Ball and Roger Morris.