LOEW’S WORK OX AMBER DIPTERA 
67 
Naturw 18G8, are true to this day. 1 The determinations of Ileer reveal 
a rather clear systematic eye, hut they are not based upon any trust¬ 
worthy plastic characters, so that most of the new genera introduced by 
him are not tenable, for they coincide with other well-known genera. 
In general most of the species represented in Aix come very near the 
Amber Diptera. That, on account of my failing strength, I am compelled 
to give up entirely my laborious work of many years on the Amber 
Diptera is to me a subject of great grief. I had hoped that one or the 
other of my dipterological friends would feel inclined to bring the work to 
completion in making use of the drawings executed by me with endless care, 
and of the colossal material of Amber specimens at that time still piled up 
around these drawings. I can truly say that I have not spared the most 
urgent entreaties for that purpose, but a willing ear I have nowhere found. 
To see a painstaking work, the fruit of years of application, treated with 
utter disregard is most depressing. It drove me long ago to the settled 
resolve not to go a step farther, but to return to their owners all the speci¬ 
mens confided to me for the sake of description. And even in this under¬ 
taking I am sometimes having unpleasant experiences, as many people do 
not seem to understand the advantage they have in receiving (instead of 
unclassified, and often unpolished, rough fragments) polished specimens, for 
the most part accurately named. I shall feel happy when this painful 
business is finally and completely wound up. If yon had consented last 
year, and at my urgent request, to undertake the working up of the Amber 
Tipulidae , the whole rich material would have been kept together, and I 
would have placed it all, including the drawings, in your hands. At pres¬ 
ent, it is unfortunately impossible, and I can dispose of the drawings only, 
not of the original specimens. Should you think, nevertheless, that you can 
make use of the drawings alone, we can yet discuss the matter.” 
In this case Loew’s memory failed him completely, because it 
was not a year, blit only a month before, that he had made me the 
offer to work upon the Amber Tipulidae; a task which, far from 
refusing, I had accepted in the very letter referred to above of 
April 7th, which he was answering on the 21st! Thus an unfor¬ 
tunate concatenation of circumstances has prevented me from 
making a more detailed study of Amber Diptera. I had visited 
1 This passage refers to the article : “ Berichtigung der generischen Bestimmung 
einiger fossilen Dipteren ” ( Zeitschr . (jesammt. Naturw., 1868). Loew, prompted by 
the publication of Oswald Ileer and L. v. Heyden on fossil Bihionidae, in which 
several useless new genera had been introduced, recommended some common-sense 
rules to be observed in describing fossil Diptera, rules which he himself had not ob¬ 
served in 1850, and which are still neglected in some recent publications on this subject. 
