LOEW AS A DIPTEROLOGIST 
133 
ter XVIII on Zetterstedt). Such behavior on the part of Loew 
is the more strange as it stands in complete contrast to his conduct 
as a school teacher, always “suggestive and inspiring ... he 
acquired in a rare degree the affection of his scholars ”; such are 
the words of his biographer, Dr. Krause, who was one of them ! 
(Compare above, Chapter XV, p. 101.) 
The peculiar circumstances connected with the publication of Loew’s new series 
of descriptive work, entitled “ Beschreibungen europaischer Dipteren,” deserve a 
separate notice. Three volumes of this series have been published (in 1869, 1871, 
and 1873). In 1877, Loew wrote me that, among his unpublished manuscripts, 
there was a fourth volume almost finished (“ welcher fast vollendet daliegt,” see 
above, p. 97). Like the rest of these manuscripts, this volume has not been 
printed. 
The first of the volumes of the “ Beschreibungen ” has two titlepages. On the 
first we. read : “ Systematische Beschreibung der bekannten europaischen zwei- 
fliigeligen Insecten, von Johann Wilhelm Meigen. — Achter Theil, oder zweiter 
Supplementband. Bearbeitet von Hermann Loew. — Halle, 1869.” The second 
titlepage bears the inscription : “ Beschreibungen europaischer Dipteren, von H. 
Loew. Erster Band. Halle, 1869.” 
The same arrangement is found, mutatis mutandis , in the second and in the third 
volumes: the second has, on the first titlepage: “ Neunter Theil, oder dritter 
Supplementband”; and on the second titlepage: “Zweiter Band.” The third 
volume has, on the first titlepage : “ Zehnter Theil, oder vierter Supplementband ” ; 
and on the second titlepage : “ Dritter Band.” 
As the first titlepage of the first volume bears the inscription “ Zweiter Supple¬ 
mentband,” and the second titlepage, which has for title “ Beschreibungen europa¬ 
ischer Dipteren,” is marked “ Erster Band,” it is evident that an intercalary 
“ Erster Supplementband” was planned, hut not published. About this intended 
intercalary work, Loew’s Preface of Vol. I of the “ Beschreibungen europaischer 
Dipteren” (1869) contains an explanation. After relating at great length how, 
since Meigen, the systematic distribution of the Diptera has undergone many 
changes, and how a large number of new genera have been described, Loew goes 
on: “This consideration seems to make it advisable, while undertaking a new 
working up of the European Diptera, to separate the systematic department 
(which is liable to become soon antiquated) from the descriptions of new species, 
which remain permanently indispensable. I intend therefore to publish on the 
System of European Diptera a separate work, illustrated by numerous figures, 
and to collect the descriptions of the species in a second work, of which the 
present publication is the first volume. 
“ The first work, for which rather voluminous preparatory manuscripts are 
ready (‘zu welchem ziemlich umfangreiche Vorarbeiten fertig sind’), will contain 
in its Introduction the necessary information about the terminology, and the dis¬ 
tribution of Diptera into families, and will also provide, in separate fascicles for 
each family, the subdivision of the families into genera. I shall not bind my¬ 
self to any definite succession of the families, but shall publish those first the 
