Amedeo Terzi, the Italian who drew over 37,000 parasitic insects and spent 3 months in a mosquito infested Italian town to prove a point.
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Terzi with Louis Louis Sambon & George Carmicael Low in 1900, avoiding mosquitoes in Ostia, Italy to verify the mosquito-malaria theory.
The Italian illustrator and entomologist Amedeo John Engel Terzi (1872 -1956) specialised in Diptera. The true flies. In his lifetime he drew over 37,000 of them. Beautifully. The fly drawing began in the late 1800s when Terzi was asked by Scottish physician, Sir Patrick Manson to work for him as an illustrator at the London School of Tropical Medicine. He went on to draw parasitic insects for 55 books and over 500 publications on the subject. Sir Patrick is known as “Father of Tropical medicine” and is the man who discovered that mosquitoes transmit the disease filariasis to humans. He knew his flies.
In 1900 Terzi went to a malaria-ridden Italian town called Ostia with fellow Italian Louis Sambon (the leading authority on the classification of parasitic tongue worms) and the Scotch parasitologist George Carmichael Low (who discovered that mosquitoes pass on parasites from person to person during the act of biting). The trio spent three months in Ostla and while there, by avoiding mosquitos Carmichael Low demonstrated that they were responsible for malaria transmission. Terzi joined the Natural History Museum in 1902.
A blow fly (Chrysomya chloropyga). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
The larva and fly of Chrysomyia macellaria. Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
The larva and fly of the ox warble-fly (Hypoderma bovis). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A horse fly (Hippobosca rufipes). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
The larva and fly of a horse botfly (Gastrophilus intestinalis). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
The larva and fly of the ox warble-fly (Hypoderma bovis). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A stable fly (Stomoxys calcitrans). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.A cleg (Haematopota pulchrithorax). Coloured pen and ink drawing by A.J.E. Terzi, ca. 1919.
The bandicot tick (Ixodes reduvius), vector of the louping-ill parasite. Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
Life-cycle stages of the parasite Babesia canis and its vector, the kennel tick (Rhicephalus sanguineus). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A cleg or horse fly (Tabanus ditaeniatus). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
Life-cycle stages of the parasite Haemogregarina muris and its vector, the mite (Lelaps echidninus). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
Spores of Bacillus pestis which caused the plague and its vector the human flea (Pulex irritans). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A cleg or horse fly (Tabanus biguttatus). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.A grouse fly (Ornithomyia lagopodis). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A parasitic worm (Filaria species) and its vector beetle (Tenebrio molitor). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A parasitic nematode (Filaria immitis) and its vector, the mosquito (Myzomyia superpicta). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A tsetse fly (Glossina morbitans). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.A tsetse fly (Glossina palpalis). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A woman suffering from chronic pellagra with dermatitis on her hands, neck and face. Watercolour by A.J.E. Terzi, ca 1925.
A woman suffering from chronic pellagra with dermatitis on her hands and face. Watercolour by A.J.E. Terzi, ca 1925.
A girl in the London Asylum suffering from chronic pellagra. Watercolour by A.J.E. Terzi, ca 1925.
A wingless sheep fly (Melophagus ovinus). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A tick (Ixodes reduvius). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A tick (Argas persicas). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A tick (Ornithodurus moubata). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A head louse (Pediculus humanus). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A bird or bat fly (Penicillidia dufouri). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
A tick (Haemaphysalis leachi). Coloured drawing by A.J.E. Terzi.
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