44 
WINNERTZ AND LOEW 
VI WINNERTZ AND LOEW 
Loew and Winnertz had been for several years in active 
correspondence on the subject of Cecidomyiae , and Winnertz, as 
Loew must have known, was preparing a monograph of this 
family when, to Winnertz’s surprise, Loew anticipated him by the 
publication of a monograph of the same family in his “ Diptero- 
logische Beitriige,” No. IV, 1850 ( Cecidomyiae ). Loew’s prolonged 
correspondence with Winnertz, and the great amount of informa¬ 
tion he received from him, are entirely ignored in this work; in 
fact, the name of Winnertz is not mentioned, except in one or two 
insignificant passages (as, for instance, on p. 18, about Sciara tili- 
cola). Three years later, Winnertz published his oivn monograph, 
and the manner in which in this work he refers to Loew’s publi¬ 
cation, without the slightest reproach or malignant allusion, may 
serve as a model of dignity and moderation. In my “ Introduc¬ 
tion ” (p. 2) I have mentioned the visit I paid to Winnertz at 
Crefeld, 1 in 1856, on my way to the United States. I was greatly 
impressed by his grave and dignified demeanor. He told me that 
he regretted having been obliged to give up the instructive corre¬ 
spondence with Loew, but that after Loew’s behavior towards him 
he felt repugnant to continue it. 
I am not aware that any biographical notice of Winnertz has ever 
been published. In Hagen’s “Bibliotheca” I find that Johann 
Winnertz , merchant at Crefeld, was born in January, 1800. The 
date of his death is unknown to me. I find him mentioned among 
the members of the Stettiner Entomologische Gesellschaft as late as 
1890, but this is evidently an error. Winnertz’s collection, after 
his death, came into the possession of the University of Bonn, 
where I saw it in June, 1881. 
It would be difficult, from the existing data, to form an opinion 
upon the extent of Loew’s plagiarism in this case. That it must 
have been considerable may be surmised from Loew’s own ambigu¬ 
ous statement (Joe. cit ., p. 2): “Although I cannot boast of having 
had many opportunities of observing in the open air, I have seen 
1 Crefeld, like Coin, is spelled ad libitum, with K or C in German. 
