S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 50. (Budapest, 1989)

ROVARTANI KÖZLEMÉNYEK L 1989 p. 87-93 Zoological collectings by the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Korea. 91. A report on the collectings of the Twelfth Expedition By O. MERKL and Gy. SZÉL (Received January 20, 1989) Abstract : Zoological collectings by the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Korea. 91. A report on the collectings of the Twelfth Expedition - An itinerary and a list of localities of the zoological collectings of the 12th expedition in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in June-July. 1988 are given. The twelfth Hungarian zoological expedition to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has been realized in the summer of 1988. As in the case of eleventh expedition, two zoologists (the authors) and two botanists (L. Lőkös and T. Szerdahelyi)took part in the expedition. We reached Pyongyang via Moscow on the 13th of June and on the 3rd of July we boarded on the return plane, and touching Moscow again we landed in Budapest next morning. Trips were organized to two entirely different parts of the country: Kumgang-san in the south and then to the Paekdu-san in the north. In addition, minor collectings were made in Pyongyang City and in Wonsan on the way to Kumgang-san. As botix of us are coleopterists, our main purpose was to collect beetles. Although all previous expeditions (except the tenth) brought beetles from Korea, only the second had been participated by a coleopterist (see Papp and Horvatovich 1972). Of course, we captured all possible other arthropods as well as some herptiles. i The early summer period before the advent of monsoon was most appropriate for collecting coleopterans. Frequent but short showers kept the vegetation rich green and blooming, and the long sunny periods allowed us to harvest the herbicolous beetle fauna that was at the peak of swarming. However, the richness of spectacular eastern-palearctic beetles dazzled us, we spent much time with general sweeping and singling but too less with special collecting methods. Pitfall traps baited with beer were placed in both region visited. In the Kumgang-san, trapping was nearly unsuccessful, while many interesting beetles, including specimens of Caranus were trapped in the Paekdu area. Inversely, taking down of rotten, fungous logs resulted in a comparatively good yield of mycetophagous beetles in the Kumgangsan and very few specimens in the Paekdu area. Our mercury-vapour bulbs went wrong in the very beginning of the expedition and there was no possibility to replace them, thus we used weak crypton bulbs. Nevertheless, among the few specimens captured in this way we have found some species which had not been collected by the Hungarian expeditions before. Kumgang-san is a lofty mountain mass belonging to the Taebaek Range in the vicinity of the East Sea (= Japan Sea). Its young topography is indicated by steep slopes, deep valleys, salient rock towers and numerous waterfalls. The area is largely covered by forest in which the dominant species is Pinus densiflora. Many interesting shrubs (indigenous Magnolia, for instance) constitute a dense shrub layer along clearcuts and roadsides but the herb layer is usually poor. The beetle fauna of Kumgang-san is basically Palearctic, but it shows a de-