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I'll give it five dead gnats out of five (*****).

It is worth buying for the photographs along. It is richly illustrated and the quality of photos and figures is vey high.

The text is also good. As it is (I guess) mostly targeted to students and biologists it does not shy away from using technical terms for clarity and brevity. Fortunately the author's have spent some time on a *good* introduction where the paleantological and entomological jargon used is clearly documented. As a bog book it is admirably up-to-date.

I have noticed some very small mistakes in the diptera section - the only order I'm familiar enough to judge with any accuracy. They do not in any way lower the book's worth for its purpose. I think this is understandable as it must've been impossibly to circulate all text and all figures to group specialists for review and determination given a finite time for the preparation of the book. After all, we certainly cannot expect general entomologists to spot mistakes in the identification of phorid species.

All in all, it is well worth the price.