Many species of Drosophila are very important laboratory animals in almost all fields of biological research, because of the ease of culturing on artificial media as well as of their rapid rate of development. Also the study of natural populations, including their living conditions, has become more and more important. "The Drosophilidae (Diptera) of Fennoscandia" gives a detailed account of the taxonomy, identification, distribution, and biology of 17 genera and 128 species of West European Drosophilidae. Full descriptions and standardized illustrations of the terminalia are provided for 80 North European species. The aims of this books is to faciliate field work by providing identification keys and by giving hints for further studies on biology, distribution and other aspects of drosophilids.

Many species of Drosophila are very important laboratory animals in almost all fields of biological research, because of the ease of culturing on artificial media as well as of their rapid rate of development. Also the study of natural populations, including their living conditions, has become more and more important. "The Drosophilidae (Diptera) of Fennoscandia" gives a detailed account of the taxonomy, identification, distribution, and biology of 17 genera and 128 species of West European Drosophilidae. Full descriptions and standardized illustrations of the terminalia are provided for 80 North European species. The aims of this books is to faciliate field work by providing identification keys and by giving hints for further studies on biology, distribution and other aspects of drosophilids.

This is the fourth ‘empidid’ volume of the series ‘Fauna entomologica scandinavica’, covering the Scandinavian species of what is undoubtedly the most difficult Palaearctic genus of the family Empididae, the genus Hilara Meigen, 1822. The format of the present volume is the same as in the preceding three volumes. The General part refers only briefly to the morphology of the adults, and is followed by sections on the Classification, Life history (covering feeding habits, epigamic behaviour, phenology), and a section on Zoogeography. All these sections are arranged as in the preceding empidid volumes, including the zoogeography section in which the Scandinavian species are classified into the usual six distributional groups. The main part is the systematic treatment, which also follows the arrangement of the preceding empidid volumes. The ‘Key to Fennoscandian species’ includes several additional species which do not receive a separate treatment in the following systematic part, but they are all given a clear diagnosis in the discussion of the most closely related Scandinavian species. In all, 90 species of Hilara are treated in the present volume, of which 72 have been found to occur in Denmark and Fennoscandia. These further 18 species are included, as they may well occur within the area covered by this series although they have not yet been found there.

This book is the first comprehensive account on the flea fauna of Fennoscandia and Denmark. Totally 89 species/subspecies are treated of which 69 have been found in the region. The remainder are known from neighboring areas and may turn up. The introductory part gives a brief historical overview of the earliest literature on fleas and a more detailed account of the Scandinavian literature up to the present. This is followed by a discussion of flea-host associations in relation to distribution in a general and Scandinavian perspective. Other chapters deal with life history, medical importance, morphology and collecting/preservation of fleas, and are followed by a flea–host index. The systematic part, amply illustrated with Frans Smit’s outstanding line drawings, provides identification keys to adult fleas from family to subspecies. For each species/subspecies relevant available information on synonymy, identification, distribution, host relations and biology is given. The book concludes with a summary of the provincial distribution of fleas in Fennoscandia and Denmark, a bibliography and a taxonomic name index.

This volume completes the survey of the ca. 400 species of springtails, which can be found in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroes and the Arctic Islands and includes the sections Entomobryomorpha and Symphypleona. The first volume, published in 1998, covered Poduromorpha. Identification keys and full descriptions of the species are richly illustrated by line drawings. Photos are provided for some species displaying characteristic patterns of pigmentation. New diagnostic characters, including sensillary chaetotaxy and details of the mouth apparatus, are introduced. With the appearence of this book soil scientists and the interested amateur have now a modern tool to identify all species of Nordic springtails. In addition the habitat preferences and geographical distribuition are summarised. The book will be of general interest to everyone working on springtail identification.

The book provides richly illustrated identification keys and descriptions of the ca. 240 Nordic springtail species of Entomobryomorpha and Symphypleona, thus completing the survey which was introduced with the first volume on Poduromorpha in 1998.

The Frit Flies (Chloropidae, Diptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark is written by two leading experts on this large and difficult group of small to minute flies, Dr Emilia P. Nartshuk, Zoological Institute Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg, Russia, & Dr Hugo Andersson (deceased in 2008), Zoological Institute, Lund University, Sweden. The book covers the North European fauna of frit flies that totals 209 species in 48 genera including 11 species and 1 genus described as new to science. Several species are economically important as notorial pests of cereals and fodder grasses. This is the first comprehensive treatment ever of the entire North European fauna of frit flies. It primarily facilitates species identification, but further summarizes existing knowledge about nomenclature, biology, faunistics and literature. Keys are given to subfamilies, genera and species for the adults and for the known larvae to genus or even species level. The text is supplemented with numerous illustrations of characters of diagnostic importance. Species distributions in the Nordic countries are detailed in a catalogue.