Dipterologiae Italicae prodromus
Encyclopedia
Dipterologiae Italicae prodromus is a fundamental work of systematic
Systematic
Systematic is an American hard rock band from Oakland, California. They were one of the first signings to Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich's record label, The Music Company, via Elektra Records. The band released two studio albums before disbanding in 2004....

 entomology
Entomology
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...

 by the Italian
entomologist Camillo Róndani
Camillo Róndani
Camillo Róndani was an Italian entomologist noted for his studies of Diptera.-Early years:When Camillo Róndani was born in Parma the city was part of the French Empire Napoleon having crowned himself King of Italy...

.
It consist of seven volumes published in Paris, Parma, Firenze (Ex Tipographia A. Stocchii between 1856 and 1877. It is written in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

.The subject is the Diptera
Diptera
Diptera , or true flies, is the order of insects possessing only a single pair of wings on the mesothorax; the metathorax bears a pair of drumstick like structures called the halteres, the remnants of the hind wings. It is a large order, containing an estimated 240,000 species, although under half...

 of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

A prodromus is a preliminary publication intended as a basis for future work - Rondani's Expression is "un programma, o, per meglio dire, una proposta che vuol essere esaminata e discussa e quindi riformata, dietro le considerazioni dei dotti in tale materia" , in English a programme, or, better to say, a proposal to be examined and discussed and therefore changed ,after the considerations of scholars in such materia".

Nineteen publications and twenty memoires, fragments and commentaries by Róndani complement the prodromo. These are not part of the work but integrate sections , add further information, modify, complement and illuminate the prodromo text.

Volume 1

Volume I is an overview presented as a dichotomous key of classification of the thirty-two families
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 families and eighty-four stirpi (subfamilies) of European Diptera.It is titled Genera italica ordinis depterorum ordinatim disposita et distincta et in familias et stirpes aggregata and also keys to genera
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 very many of them new

Carl Robert Osten-Sacken said of Volume 1 quoting Hermann Loew
Hermann Loew
Friedrich Hermann Loew was a German entomologist who specialised in the study of Diptera, an order of insects including flies, mosquitoes, gnats and midges...


"The first volume of the " Prodromus" contains dichotomic tables of the families and genera of Italian Diptera, published in advance of the intended work upon them. The number of genera (according to Loew's statement, loc. cit., p. 338) is 587 ; among them a considerable number are new ones, the names of which are introduced without any other description but that contained in the data of the dichotomic tables, connected with the name of the typical, often as yet undescribed, species. Loew was right in calling this premature publication a failure calculated to impede, rather than to advance, the future progress of dipterology. Loew enumerates a large number of errors, misspelling of names and misprints". This, however, is the technical view and whilst it is true that the Prodromus causes some nomenclatural problems the review overlooks the fact (recognised by both Osten-Sacken and Loew) that the work is a prodromus, a regional fauna and an identification manual as well as a systematic treatise in a universal language (Latin).The problem of nomina nuda
Nomen nudum
The phrase nomen nudum is a Latin term, meaning "naked name", used in taxonomy...

 was resolved as the succeeding volumes were published and the errors, misspelling of names and misprints identified by Loew were largely corrected in later errata and the Prodromus as a whole is one of the most cited works on European Diptera.

Volumes 2-7

The subsequent six volumes also present dichotomous keys so that the entire work functions as a handbook for identification as well as a regional fauna. They are titled Species italica ordinis dipterorum in genera characteribus definita, ordination collectae methodo analitica distinctae, ex novis vel minus cognotis descriptis.These six volumes contain the species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 descriptions.
The parts are
  • Pars I (Prima) 1857 Oestridae Syrphidae, Conopidae
  • Pars II (Secunda) 1859 Muscidae, Siphoninae et (partim) Tachinae
  • Pars IV 1862 (Quarta) Muscidae, Phasiinae, Dexinae, Muscinae, Stomoxydinae
  • Pars IV 1861 (Tertia) Muscidae Tachinarium complentum
  • Pars V 1877 (Quinta) Stirps XVII Anthomyinae
  • Pars VI See Part VII
  • Pars VII (Sexta sic)1866-1871 Scatophaginae, Sciomyzinae and Ortalidinae
  • Pars VII Fasc I Scathophaginae Italicae collecte distincte et in ordinem depositae
  • Pars VII Fasc II Sciomyzinae Italicae collecte distincte et in ordinem depositae
  • Pars VII Fasc IV Linea B Tephritoidea
  • Pars VII Ortalidinae Italicae collecte distincte et in ordinem depositae extracted from Bollettino della Societa Entomologica Italiana Vol.1 Fasc 1 and 2 1870

Collaborators Volumes 2 -7

The following entomologists appear in the text
  • Maximilian Spinola
    Maximilian Spinola
    -Background:Spinola was born in Pézenas, Hérault, France. The family of Spinola was of very long standing and had great wealth and power in Genoa. Maximilian Spinola was a descendant of the famous Spanish General Ambrogio Spinola, marqués de los Balbases and much of his wealth derived from land...

  • Luigi Bellardi
    Luigi Bellardi
    Luigi Bellardi was an Italian malacologist and entomologist who specialised in Diptera.Bellardi was born in Genoa and died in Turin...

  • Oronzo Gabriele Costa
  • Achille Costa
    Achille Costa
    Achille Costa was an Italian entomologist appointed director of the Zoological Museum of Naples. He founded the entomological collections in Naples and described many new species....

      Southern Italy
  • Giuseppe Mussino Genoa
    Genoa
    Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

     collections from Piemontese and Liguria
  • Giuseppe Gené
    Giuseppe Gené
    Carlo Giuseppe Géné was an Italian naturalist and author.Géné was born at Turbigo in Lombardy and studied at the University of Pavia. He published a number of papers on natural history, particularly entomology...

  • Gaetano Giorgio Gemellaro, Professore di Geologia nella B. Uniyersiti di Palermo
  • Giovanni Battista Villa, 1810-1887 Milano
  • Eugenio Truqui  Torino
  • M. Pecchioli Pisa
  • Conte Luigi D'Arco Mantova
  • Antonio Schembri
    Antonio Schembri (ornithologist)
    Antonio Schembri Antonio Schembri Antonio Schembri (April 1813, Valletta- December 1872 was an Italian ornithologist.Antonio Schembri was a shipping agent. He wrote, in Italian, Catalogo Ornitologico del Gruppo di Malta (1843) which is the first scientific checklist of the birds of Malta and also ...

     (ornithologist)]] Islands
  • Alexander Henry Haliday
    Alexander Henry Haliday
    Alexander Henry Haliday, also known as Enrico Alessandro Haliday and Alexis Heinrich Haliday sometimes Halliday , was an Irish entomologist. He is primarily known for his work on Hymenoptera, Diptera and Thysanoptera, but Haliday worked on all insect orders and on many aspects of entomology.Haliday...


Geographic Scope

The work is an intellectual aspiration of the Risorgimento and includes records from the whole of modern Italy (post 1861) including Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 and Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

 excepting Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 which was not part of the Italian State until 1864.

Similar Works

Other regional faunas (countries as opposed to smaller regions) of this broad date whose subject is Diptera are Johan Wilhelm Zetterstedt
Johan Wilhelm Zetterstedt
Johan Wilhelm Zetterstedt was a Swedish naturalist who worked mainly on Diptera and Hymenoptera.-Biography:Zetterstedt studied at the University of Lund, where he was a pupil of Anders Jahan Retzius. He received the title of professor in 1822 and succeeded Carl Adolph Agardh as professor of botany...

, 1855 Diptera Scandinaviae disposita et descripta. Tomus duodecimus seu supplementum tertium, continens addenda, corrigenda & emendanda tomis undecim prioribus. Officina Lundbergiana, Lundae (Lund) , Francis Walker Insecta Britannica Diptera
Insecta Britannica Diptera
Insecta Britannica Diptera is a seminal work of entomology by Francis Walker. The most important part of the work was written jointly with Alexander Henry Haliday...

, 1851–1856 and Ignaz Rudolph Schiner
Ignaz Rudolph Schiner
Ignaz Rudolf Schiner was an Austrian entomologist who specialised in Diptera.Schiner was born in Fronsburg , Horn in 1813 and died in Vienna on 6 July 1873. He was a ministerial secretary in ViennaHis most significant publications are...

 Fauna Austriaca. Die Fliegen (Diptera). Nach der analytischen Methode bearbeitet 1862-1864.

Rarity

The original work is extremely rare as few copies were printed ands it was partly published in periodicals. Dipterologiae Italicae prodromus was published as fascimile reprint in 1914 by Wilhelm Junk
Wilhelm Junk
Wilhelm Junk was a Czech natural history, bibliographer bookseller and entomologist.Wilhelm Junk established his book dealership "Antiquariaat Junk", in 1899 in Berlin. He soon became the leading dealer in works on natural history in Europe...

Berlin but this is also rare.

External links

  • BDH Complete work
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK