Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 96. (Budapest 2004)

Korsós, Z. ; Vörös, J.: In memoriam Dr. Olivér György Dely (1927-2003)

cohol (including the MÉHELY-types) burnt to ash (BOROS 1957). After the revolution was subdued, it was completely DELY'

s task (and later his merit) to rebuild the collection. The museum received many donations from other European museums (e.g., Berlin, Prague), but it was the tireless work of OLIVÉR DELY, accompanied by his faithful assistant, Ms ELISABETH ŐRY, which increased the holdings of the collection from almost nothing to the present 16000 specimens. Unfortunately, not only the entire collection but also all the scientific manuscripts of the young scientist and the material based for it was destroyed in the fire of 1956. OLIVÉR DELY had to start his work again, and it took 8 more years for him to complete his dissertation for the Candidate of Science degree. Finally, he received this title from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1965 for his taxonomical and ecological studies on the Hungarian populations of the Alpine Newt (Triturus alpestris). To partly replace the loss of the collection in 1956, DELY conducted the first Hungarian Africa expedition into Egypt in 1957. In 1973, he participated in another expedition to the Algerian Sahara, where he suffered a serious accident during a night collecting. His left leg was injured by a shotgun, and the healing lasted for almost two years. Unfortunately, his health could never be completely recovered, and the consequences of this accident (including the break of his leg three times) influenced later his entire life. OLIVÉR DELY married to ÁGNES DRASKOVITS in 1965, who also worked in the Hungarian Natural History Museum as a specialist on Diptera. They went together on an expedition to North Korea in 1978, the fourth one of a series of 22 conducted by the HNHM which created a world-wide reputation of the accumulated East Asiatic material in this institution (KORSÓS 2002). Despite all the difficulties in his life, DELY was a real professional herpetologist, whose work and merits were admired all over Europe. In a pioneer manner, he organised the First Herpetological Conference of the socialist countries in 1981, which actually became a forum for bringing together 47 representatives of this field of zoology from 14 countries, including, among others, the United States, France, Germany, Austria and Russia. Ten years later, in 1991, he was elected to be the honorary president of the 6th Ordinary General Meeting of the Societas Europaea Herpetologica, held also in Budapest (KORSÓS & KISS 1992). OLIVÉR DELY has published a total of 83 scientific papers (in German, French, English and Hungarian), and although this number is not exceptionally high, there can be no doubt about the scientific accuracy, credit and details of his publications. He had learnt the details, exact observations and descriptions, causal explanations and careful evaluations from the greatest Hungarian herpetologists (MÉHELY, BOLKAY, FEJÉR VARY), hence becoming a deserved follower of them.