Book Synopsis
The Real Life of Sergei Lesnoy, by dipterists Valery Korneyev and Neal Evenhuis, is a free and enhanced English translation from the original Ukrainian version by the first author published in Ukrainska Entomofaunistyka 5(1) in 2014. Paramonov was an outstanding, world-renowned taxonomist specializing in bee flies (family Bombyliidae) and other parasitic Diptera. His friend and colleague Edgar F. Riek wrote in a tribute (1967): “Sergei Paramonov was one of the last “old-world” scientists — a naturalist of varied interests... with the Bombyliidae [the bee flies], his first love — “meine Lieblinge” as he refers to them in both literature and correspondence. One might obtain an impression that Paramonov was “a museum man”, but this is not so — he knew most of his species as living entities and I spent many wonderful days in the field with Paramonov and while he collected Diptera."