| Activity | To please his family he studied law, but as he always had been attracted to the study of natural sciences, he soon began studies on fossil molluscs. With his friend Michelotti he collected fossil shells in the hills of Turin. At only 20 years of age he published his first paper on fossil molluscs. In order to increase his field action, he travelled to Egypt, where he made a large collection of nunmulitic fossils. Between 1854 and 1874, however, he became interested in Diptera, publishing several papers on the fauna of piemonte, as well as a monograph on Mexican Diptera, the first in the history of Dipterology, the famous "Saggio di Ditterologia Messicana" (Essay on Mexican Dipterology) |