Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 96. (Budapest 2004)
Korsós, Z. ; Vörös, J.: In memoriam Dr. Olivér György Dely (1927-2003)
His papers - with a few exceptions - dealt with members of the Hungarian herpetofauna; DELY' s authentic purpose was to elaborate all of its species from the taxonomical and systematic points of view. His favourite subject was to investigate the morphological variability at the individual and population levels; he measured body size parameters, counted scale rows, and drew head-shield patterns, in order to clarify questions of microevolution of co-existing and isolated amphibian and reptile populations. In his dissertation for the Candidate of Science degree, he described four new subspecies of the Alpine Newt from Hungary (Triturus alpestris bakonyiensis, biikkiensis, carpathicus, and sátoriensis). These forms, however, were not accepted later as valid taxa (GASC et al. 1997). He elaborated in separate publications the following species of the Hungarian herpetofauna: Rana arvalis woherstorffi, Salamandra salamandra, Lacerta ( = Zootoca) vivipara, L.(— Podarcis) taurica, Anguis fragilis, Coluber caspius, Vipera bents and V. ursinii rakosiensis; listed their distribution records, and discussed the population variability and zoogeographical history in some cases. He contributed to the great European herpetological book series inititated in the 1980s ("Handbuch der Reptilien und Amphibien Europas", edited by W. BÖHME) with a chapter on Lacerta vivipara and on Anguis fragilis. He wrote the appropriate chapters on amphibians and reptiles in the scientific results of the work of the HNHM in three of the Hungarian National Parks (Hortobágy, Kiskunság and Bükk), as well as that of the Bátorliget Nature Reserve. Together with his geneticist colleague GÁBOR STOHL, they established hereditary morphotypes in the head-shield patterns of three lacertid lizard species (Zootoca vivipara, Podarcis taurica, the Mongolian Eremias argus) and the Hungarian Meadow Viper (Vipera ursinii rakosiensis), and commented on them with phylogenetic considerations. He also published papers on some exotic reptiles: on the South American amphisbaenid Anops kingii, the Egyptian turtle Pelomedusa subrufa, and the lacertid genus Eremias, based on the collections made by ZOLTÁN KASZAB in Mongolia. As his most important contributions to Hungarian herpetology, the two books in the academic series Fauna Hungáriáé can undoubtedly be considered (Amphibia, 1967, and Reptilia, 1978). These were, and still are, the most comprehensive scientific summaries of all the amphibian and reptile species in the Carpathian Basin. They are sought-after books all over Europe despite the fact that they were written only in Hungarian. In 1959 OLIVÉR DELY initiated and later edited all the subsequent 23 volumes of the museum's periodical Vertebrata hungarica. He had put a lot of effort into the editorial work of this journal, filled it with high-standard articles written by himself and well-known colleagues, and it was a great pity for him when in 1989,
