A few years ago, I got intrigued by a group of colorful insects called, depending on your preference, either Hover Flies or Flower Flies. By either name, the members of the Diptera family Syrphidae are fascinating and challenging subjects for identification and photography, and it didn't take long for me to become hooked. In the process, I developed an e-mail friendship with Jeff Skevington, a Canadian biologist who's one of the world's syrphid experts, and he told me about his then-upcoming field guide to the group. I now have it in my hand—thank you, Princeton University Press—and the Field Guide to the Flower Flies of Northeastern North America will be keeping me busy and, I hope, well-informed for years. It will probably also keep me perplexed. Here's a syrphid in need of a positive ID, but I can't be certain of my tentative diagnosis until Jeff comes back from his field work and helps me out.