S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 32/2. (Budapest, 1979)
warm period with a maximum of daily temperature around 28 °C, that did not fall below 20°C even in the evenings. This relatively high temperature due to the permanent sunshine was coupled with a striking humidity in this rather dry season. The collecting sites, the natural geographical regions, the methods of collecting and adjoining circumstances have been extensively treated in the reports of the earlier expeditions. Consequently, we deferred repeating them by describing everything, nevertheless, we thought it useful to talk about those new experiences that were not touched upon previously. It was the first occasion that Hungarian researchers had the opportunity to collect in the environs of Haeju and Sariwon. Both towns are on the Hwanghae Peninsula extending well in the Yellow Sea (Korean name: West Sea of Korea); the former town lying on the seashore itself, while the latter one more inland. To the north and north-east this large peninsula is limited by the River Taedong-gang (the last hyphenated tag word meaning river), to the south and south-east by the River Ryesong-gang. The greater part of the peninsula is a flatland and as such geomorphologically belongs to the "western maritime country" with some hilly and mountainous regions reaching at places up to 1000 m above sea level. This region during the Cambrian, then at the end of the Tertiary and the beginning of the Quaternary underwent irregular shiftings and upheavals and sank several times. Consequently, its geological layers are mixed and the rivers formed broad fluviatile deposits over large stretches of land. The peninsula displays a significant north-south fault line, while the plications are of west-east and north-west - south-east direction. The versatile puckerings on the surface are mostly limestone and shale, followed by gneiss, granite, Jurassic shale and sandstone, also Silurian and Carboniferous sandstone, limestone, shale, as well as sand, gravel and deposits of clay. Owing to this varied composition of rock very characteristic slopes developed, even within small areas. Thus, the limestone and sandstone elevations have extraordinarily sloping sides with rugged peaks, while the granite ones form rather round cones. The scenery is most picturesque, telling a readily comprehensible story of geology even to the layman. The landslides are open-air museums showing the position, the thickness and the composition of the layers. The temperature and precipitation conditions are similar to those measured on the flats around Pyongyang, the mean temperature of July is 24-26 °C, of January 6 °C below zero, the average precipitation is about 1000 mm, though the eastern faces of the more rugged mountains have a much drier climate. On the flats the forests had long since been cleared and turned into cultivated lands, and even the less slopy hillsides and the foot of mountains as far up as it is tiUable are today broken up and various agricultural plants are grown on them. The various plunge basins, pebbly stretches unsuitable for cultivation are good breeding grounds for a jumble of reed, sedge and scrub forest. The more elevated parts (environs of Haeju) and the areas enclosed by mountains (environs of Sariwon) were: most profiting from insect collecting point of view, though the forests here too were of secondary (perhaps tertiary) in nature. This phytogeographical zone may best be characterized by the benzoin laurel, the Japanese camellia and the evergreen oak. Our collecting methods were the same employed in the course of the previous expeditions. Excellent results were obtained by sweeping, singling and by using various electric lamps. This time the trees were well in foliage, the meadows and clearings were a luscious green, especially as expected along watercourses and around lakes. Numerous softstemmed plants were in full bloom and were visited mainly by bees, wasps, butterflies and flies. In the evening and night hours various Diptera, Homoptera, Heteroptera and Lepidoptera (thousands of the rice leafroller Cnaphalocrocis medinalis Guenée) species were swarming. After the first two days of October, without any warning, or a gradual decrease in temperature, a sharp drop occurred in a matter of a few hours. This was followed by a comparatively short rainfall, and though the sun came out again, the temperature scarcely rose above 10°C, and in the early afternoons suddenly dropped again. In the nights and in the early mornings the minima in the north fell to 4-6 °C below zero, but even in the southern parts the temperature was only around 0 °C or just above it. In the day time, in the taiga forest zone only a few animals crawled about (Orthoptera) with an occasional butterfly ( Colias sp. ) flitting by at about noon. Just for the sake of interest it might be worth while to mention that on the 3rd of October at about 11 o'clock after 25-30 sweeping motions only three small spiders were in the bottom of the net. Inside the dead logs more frequently did we find ice
