S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 53. (Budapest, 1992)

FOLIA ENTOM OLOG I CA HUNGARICA ROVARTANI KÖZLEMÉNYEK LUI 1992 p. 121-126 A report on the second soil-zoological collecting trip in Ken>a By S. Mahunka and L. Mahunka-Papp (Received July 31, 1992) Report on the second so il-zoo logical collecting trip in Kenya. - A short collecting trip to Kenya in 1992 was completed with the primary aim to gather as many soil-dwelling animals as possible. A brief summary of the trip and list of the collecting sites with all the pertaining data are given. For a long time, the main goal of our soil mite fauna exploration has been the profound study of Oribatids and Tarsonemids of Africa, i.e. the Ethiopian zoogeographical region. Our first trip to Kenya was made in 1985 (Mahunka and Mahunka-Papp 1986) during which we collected material that is representative for the area between Ethiopia and Tanzania. The results of the elaboration (Mahunka 1986, 1987) suggested that it would be highly interesting to compare the faunas of South and East Africa with those of Madagascar, the Seychelles and Mauritius. Furthermore, attention should be paid to the neighbouring islands with a final view to South-east Asia. Any emerging relationships might indicate new faunagenetic interdependence. Our present trip was subject to the attainment of this aim. The previous trip was completed in the dry season, consequently, the collected materials were poor in species, nor did we have long series of the species. Some fragments and dead specimens indicated that the fauna must be much richer than what the materials represent. Thus, already then, we decided to make another collecting trip. However, this plan could be realized only now with the help of the OTKA (Hungarian National Scientific Research Foundation). Thus, herewith we should like to thank the respective board of committee, furthermore, the directorate of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, the custos, Dr. B. Hauser of the Museum d'Histoire naturelle, Geneva. Special thanks are due to our escort in Kenya, Mr. D. Chimwere who organized our internal travels. Besides soil mites, of course, we also collected - with due attention to nature protection measures - various other animals, especially arthropods for the Hungarian Natural History Museum. Our collectings, this time, did not include collecting in water or lamping, otherwise the other methods were the same as during our previous trip. The visited collecting sites were more or less the same, too, though they were somewhat extended with the Tsavo East National Park, the environs of the Taita Hills, Mombasa and Nairobi. The latter two localities,