Letters from Alexander Henry Haliday to Hermann Loew 29 April 1869 and 186-
Casa Bottini Lucca. Italy 29 April 1869 Dr H. Loew My dear Dr Loew Several days after I got your last I was going to burn some covers yours among the rest when I happened to observe some interference of light and discovered inside a small detached slip with queries about Ceria garibaldii. I sent the substance of them at once to C. Rondani [1] asking him however in preference to any written answer to trust me with the loan of a specimen for the safe return of which I would take every precaution. He says he has but the one and is unwilling to risk it by post or otherwise and sends the slip I now enclose to you as I am not sure with the written additions that it would pass as printed matter. You see he does not add any notice of the length of wing. Just possibly I may yet have an opportunity to supplement the description. He inquiries if any of the spec. names in your list of Italian Ortalidinii which I transmitted to him are Mss. I conclude not. Schiner [2] has lately sent me his Diptera of Novara Cicumnavigation [3] . I observe in it a Hydrellia very similar by description to the new genus which I have mentioned to you before habitus of Gymnopa -- Hydrellia —forelegs nearly of Dichaeta & front rather of Discomyza—Both my specimens were destroyed by mould, during my illness of 1864-7; and I have not been able to recover it. I have just determined a second species of Coleoptera of - among my Sicilian captures—one which I had supposed new. I believe it is Cassida desertorum Gebler—the other is Cardiadirus chloroticus Gebler—Curious it is not their occurrence at the extreme south of Sicily separated by such an interval especially as I gave so little attention to this order.
Westwood [4] whom I missed in the Spring by just one day, he having left Rome the day before I arrived, he returning home—I on my way to Naples, has just written to me saying that he is going to take a run with his wife to Zermatt, and asking if I would meet them there. He adds that he had heard of the n. g. of Bethyllidae taken by me in Sicily and that it was worth the journey that capture alone! I don’t think just that. As it is uncertain if I may not have to set off for England on short notice I am not able to give him the rendezvous. Had I made any alpine excursion this summer I was thinking precisely of a short stay at the Observatory on the S. Theodul-joch [5] , which would have been on my road to Zermatt. But , September coming in, it may be rather late for a position like that among snowy peaks & glaciers. My cold prevented my going to the Modenese [6] mountains the week before last, probably, if I have not to start off on another journey, I may go with Signore Pisani at the end of this month. There is an undescribed Sciomyza to be had there on the mountain pastures. You have, of course, got Timia apicalis, and do not need any of my Sicilian specimens? About Phyteuma and Xanthium—being a bad botanist myself I asked O Pirazzoli [7] and knows more of it the name of the species which he determined as X. strumarium—and I have just intentionally, I think, given it my other name in writing to you. I must impress however that the doubt has since arisen in my own mind whether it was not rather one of the two other species. I hope to clear it up as the same species to all appearance grows on the coast of the mare Tyrrhenium [8] near the mouth of the Serchio [9]. Unless you wish to publish your paper on Blepharoceridae immediately do let me have it in whatever form for the Journal of Ent. Soc. Ital. Here is what Westwood writes, in answer to my question, about the name Asthenia and its applications—as well as I can make it out, a microscopic scrawl relegated to the margin of a crowded letter. “As to Asthenia I can only say that Hübner’s[10] character of 7 words ought to cause its rejection as far too insufficient. Stephens [11] sunk it as part of his genus Eupoecia but Walckenaer [12] has restored it with a (?) & putting into it things which disagree with the 5 species which Hübner put into his genus Asthenia. I think it ought to be retained for my Dipterous genus. The Lepidopterous genus so named in Duncan [13] should be written Asthenes Guenée [14] refers it to Bombycidae, I to Urapteryx.” From what you say, I see no use in my writing to Bellardi: Probably I should have no answer.
When I saw his collection he had only 2 Italian species of Blepharicera and one species from Crete a single specimen which did not seem to me to be Apistomyix elegans—but rather as he considered a n.g. That is a curious one figured among the Novara Diptera----
A Fedchenko [15] is a skilled collector;—and his intended sojourn (next summer) in Turkistan will afford virgin soil, I imagine for Diptera. I have been unable to form any judgement, or make any use, of his published catalogue of the Diptera of Moscow government [Fedchenko, A. P. (1868). Materialye diyu entomologiya guverniya Moskovaskago uchebnago okruga. 1. Spisok Dvukryilyikh nasekomyikh. Izv. Imp. Obshchh. Lyubitel. Estestvoznaniya Antropol. Etnogr. 6: 8-191] , as I possess no Russian—(only a dictionary and a grammar)—not even the alphabet. I had written the above several days since but had to lay it aside for other engagements; —and today Oct. 3rd I have a letter from Mr Fedchenko. He mentions the warm Bokhara as having prevented his intended visit to Turkistan this year and hopes that circumstances will be more favourable the next. He is occupying himself at present particularly with Dolichopidae and Tachydromia. Of the former family he says he has about 120 species of the environs of Moscow. I should think that a correspondence with him as it certainly would be useful to him might also serve your collection in the way of exchanges. [next page] He seemed to me to be of a very modest disposition and might not choose to open such a correspondence but from you proceeding the first motion if you are so disposed he could not but feel honoured by it and I supposewould reciprocate it eagerly… His address M. Alexis Fredschenko— Musée Zoologique de L’Université, Moscou—and here I leave the matter to your judgement and choice. He says their summer is over(Sept. 23rd) but we might say the same if we had had properly a summer. The rains fed by the sea from which the wind sets in unchangeably have done vast damage—not only to the vintage, the roads & railways—but the cattle and mankind too. In the city of Parma alone eighteen persons perished by floods. All transport of parcels, between this place & that, is interrupted. I have had a box of books and insects for Rondani’s use lying for some time awaiting in vain the restoration of communications—and am told that it will be another fortnight yet,—and that usually turns out to mean a month at least in this country. When the sun has struggled out through the clouded sky as it does occasionally I have not neglected collecting as I must take exercise for health in any case when I can—but I have not obtained much. My chief search and a fruitless one has been for the purpose of replacing a genus of Hymenoptera my only two specimens of which yielded dinners to the Psoci while I was so long disabled by illness—I came upon the first specimen of Pegophila meridionalis a few days ago. This is earlier than I had found it before, October being the season for it. I got also a specimen of a Tephritis which I had sought but failed to find in the South & Sicily
Hemilea dimidiata Costa --- But this species Rondani tells me occurs in various parts of Italy. You seem to be always adding to your Diptera collection fromall quarters and it must be at considerable expense. I am sorry that since being confined to my own captures I have not store with which to make exchanges as you have no doubt a large quantity of duplicateswhich would be valuable to me. If indeed you would exchange these for a different equivalent which I have no opportunity here to make available for the acquisition of collections. I am threatened with the gift of a valuable collection not of Diptera which would have an influence to divert me more from Diptera to a section of Hymenoptera which engaged my studies earlier. It is a typical collection such as the British Museum authorities are desirous to obtain—and have got several—but the Monograph based on it is incomplete and the author’s infirmities incapacitate him for the necessary labour which would solicit me if the collection comes into my possession. But there is a family of Diptera towards which I am drawn especially the Anthomyidae. When I first studied –Desvoidy’s [16]’s(??) Myodaires I made many notes on that family but based merely on my own collection chiefly Irish species & very inadequately representing the entire. Here I have been able to add very little to my knowledge or materials and would require considerable additions before I should feel myself prepared to attempt the subject. I imagine the group to be much more largely represented in Northern & central Europe, than in this penninsula [sic]. M. Fedchenko’s (??) names, among the new Italian species of Diptera he took this spring, a Tachytrechus allied to consobrinus … [letter ends] ?66/5
… I met with it, last October, as I informed you, on Xanthium stramarium near Ravenna; and this was in May last, a single specimen, in the Campagna of Rome, towards the mouth of Tiberis. I have a reply from T. (or F.) Walker to my questions as to the name Asthenia. He says “Thernica Hübner includes Urapteryx and another genus; the latter Westwood named Asthenia, but did not remove it from the Geometrites. Guènèe, correctly I think, places it with the Lepidoptera. I have adopted Asthenia in my lists as Asthenia Hübner is adopted by Guènèe & others and is a distinct & well-established genus of Geometrites.” You see he does not refer to Asthenia Hübner; and the wording of the clause — I do not quite understand. However on the whole it should seem that there is good reason against adopting Asthenia in Diptera. I have at last got the second of your Monographs of N. American Diptera. When will you give another? This one goes so much - with the Dipterologische Beitrage that the first one is the more interesting to me, both for the general summary & remarks on the
families and for the treatment of Trypetidae in particular. I find no reference to my notes made at the Museum of Naples, that the Timia from Reggio [17] is named erythrocephala. Yet if it had been that in fact, I think I should have been more struck with it, and have taken some notes of the characters. I hope you find your present residence agreeable and that the comparative repose agrees with your health better than the inexorable demands of your office did. I shall be looking forward with much desire to the fruits of it, in some more comprehensive work. Your collection must embrace new rare materials - as are hardly to be found together elsewhere. The edifice of Meigen [18]has been rebuilt to a considerable extent now piece by piece, but these are scattered here & there, and the need must be felt for a complete revision of the Diptera of Europe, to supplement, if not to supersede, his memorable labours.[See Loew, 1873 Systematische Beschreibung der bekannten europaischen zweiflugeligen Insecten. Von Johann Wilhelm Meigen. Zehnter Theil oder vierter Supplementband. Beschreibung europaischer Dipteren. Dritter Band. H.W. Schmidt, Halle] Do you intend any excursion to the mountains, or else where, this summer? My travelling for this year may be nearly over, unless I should find occasion, which I do not desire, to go to England for business. Very truly your A. H. Haliday Dr H. Loew
[Haltericerus] …eucerus and H. impar in both sexes. H. spathulatus has not
occurred to me ever yet. I am very sorry that we are so distant, that transmission of specimens between us is almost impracticable except such minute matters as can go by _______. And the post here is so
untrustworthy that nothing is safe, unless registered & paid for accordingly. I have just heard that a treble letter I sent to Mr Gray [19] , not long ago, containing among other things Ceromyia rubrifrons (a great rarity here) for the British Museum, never came to hand. This deters me from trying that conveyance often. Could you send me though in that way your veritable effigy in photograph? I have to write to J Winnertz [20] for the like; for though he sent me his, Dr. Sichel’s letter, which purported to contain it, was empty, when it reached me here. I have room for no more at present, so conclude. Yours very faithfully A. H. Haliday