133 
PHILIPP C. ZELLER AS A DirTEROLOGIST 
In Zeller, the lepidopterist, the ideal of a perfect dipterologist was 
lost! He was, after Rob.-Desvoidy, one of the few who put in 
practice the notion that dipterology is the science, not of pinned 
Diptera only, but also of Diptera in life. His observations of the 
motions of Diptera during different functions of their life are, in 
many cases, more complete than those of any other dipterologist, 
and deserve more study and imitation than they have received. 
The principal work of Zeller on Diptera is contained in two 
successive papers published in Oken's Isis of 1840 and 1842. 
The first paper is entitled, “ Beitrag zur Ivenntniss der Dipteren 
aus den Familien der Bombylier, Anthracier, u. Asiliden (Isis, 
1840, p. 10-77, with a plate containing seventy-two figures). The 
second paper, “ Dipterologische Beitriige ” (Isis, 1842, p. 807- 
847), contains twenty separate articles on different dipterological 
subjects, among them an elaborate monographical essay on European 
Tabanidae (p. 812-825). In the short introductory paragraph of 
this second article Zeller promises a third “ Beitrag,” which, how¬ 
ever, never appeared. The explanation of the plate, which refers 
to both papers, is placed at the end of the second. 1 
The very remarkable publications of Zeller on Diptera in the 
years 1840 and 1842, buried as they are in the ponderous volumes 
of Oken’s Isis of sixty years ago, have been very little con¬ 
sulted and appreciated by dipterologists. And yet any one who 
will take the trouble to study these pages will acknowledge that 
they contain perhaps the most delightful reading on Diptera in 
existence. The scope was a small one, the local fauna of a por¬ 
tion of Silesia, but Zeller has understood how to introduce into 
his work a real wealth of valuable observations of Diptera in 
1 Articles of minor importance on Diptera by Zeller will be found quoted in Hagen’s 
“ Bibliotheca,” under Zeller, Nos. 8, 10, 16, 17, 36; they all appeared in the Stett. 
Ent. Zeit. In the same periodical, in 1872, there is a “ List of Diptera from Bergiin in 
Switzerland,” by Zeller. Zeller told me that of his first paper in Isis, 1840, there 
were no separate copies in existence. He had none himself when I saw him, because 
he had made a present of his own copy to Zetterstedt. 1 had the good fortune to dis¬ 
cover another separate copy which Oken, the editor of Isis, had sent to Kondani. I 
bought it at Hoepli’s in Milan, together with some other books from Eondani’s library. 
It bears the inscription (in pencil) : “ A1 Ill. Camillo Kondani a Parma per l’Editore 
Prof. Oken.” Of the second of Zeller’s papers in Isis there are some rare separate 
copies scattered in libraries. 
