Alexander Henry Haliday

“ I have not yet made a visit to the Baths of Lucca our intended residence for May & June, or most of those 2 months. Meanwhile vegetation is advancing in the lower grounds, the Plantain on the ramparts, the Chestnut trees & Figs beginning to expand their buds. Peach trees which are largely cultivated as well asother fruit trees are in rich bloom, and the olives here & there are opening. ”

“ My address till the end of April will be as given above—or else (and at all times while I continue in Italy) San Concordia, Lucca. When I write next & hope to be able to say more of the promise of the summer here, as well as of the plan of journey for the midsummer chase among the mountains I have begun to exercise myself a little in climbing small & gentle activities, but am not yet in good training for such work—believe me
Lucca My dear Dr Loew 1862.3.7 I was delighted to receive your letter, this evening, on my return from a day’s sailing & exploring on the seashore near Pisa . ”

“ About five miles from them lies a mountain dell the name of which “Prato fiorito’’awakens expectations of Botanical and cosequently Entomological riches . The former are very tempting even to me a debutante in the Science and my vasculum sometimes receives specimens of plants instead of insect boxes The pretty Iris tuberosa has just just ceased flowering on the ramparts; and there, & on the slope of the river embankments, the Ophrys aranifera is thickly sprinkled. My friends brought me specimensof Tulipa montanus , by the colours of which they were attracted in an old olive-yard on the hills. ”

“ By the end of that time, we shall probably move up to the Bagni (Baths) di Lucca, or di Corseno, higher among the hills; or I may make an excursion somewhere, —to Elba;—Venice, or Trieste by that. We remained six days at Pisa, the days of departure I spent in a trip by Railway to Viareggio, the sea port of the Lucchese territory. The hours of trains were so arranged that I had but a couple of hours to look about me & find the nature of the coast. I made another fruitless attempt, from this, to visit the sea coast between the mouths of the Arno & the Sechio ”

“ The part of Meigen’s collection to which I confined my attention (Muscidae Acalypt) is in sufficiently bad condition—and the species represented few beyond all my previous suppositions. It is evident that he derived more from G. Winthem’s & Wiedemann’s collection (??) than from his own: or that the duplicates, of which his heirs disposed to Mr Winnertz included a material part of the whole. ”

“ I cannot be mistaken (it seems to me) about Meigen’s types. I made the note “3 metatarsus spiny” against the name of the species without any recollection of its place in the subdivided genus. Afterwards having turned to the place in Schiner’s [Ignaz Rudolph Schiner] Austrian Diptera, the only book of reference I had with me) I perceived the disagreement, & verified the first note by a re-examination, at the Museum , I saw the same species afterwards, in more than 2 collections (Sardinian &c) & none answering to Gymnopterus regalis. ”

“ No Dolichopidae yet except Syntormon pallipes : not much variety of Hydromyzidae , Ochthera mantis only not mantispa.No Hydrellia except griseola ---- only picta . Pelecocera latifrons I fond one- a genus before never seen by me alive.L d’ Albertis’ collection is so deficient in small Coleoptera (except Brachyelyptra) that I was interested in observing whether they are really comparatively deficient here—which so far does not seem to be the case. ”