S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 58. (Budapest, 1997)

ROVARTANI KÖZLEMÉNYEK LVIII 1997 pp. 9-17 A report of an entomological expedition in Peru with special reference to lycaenid butterflies (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) Zs. Bálint A report of an entomological expedition in Peru with special reference to lycaenid butterflies (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) - A report is given on the entomological expedition made by one Hungarian lepidopterist and his two Peruvian colleagues in the high Andean region of Peru in February, 1995. A list of collecting sites with data and with special reference to lycaenid butterflies is given. INTRODUCTION With the official invitation of the Museuo de História Natural Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (MUSM) (Lima, Peru) in hand and by the support of the OTKA Foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences I could spend one month in Peru to study the Neotropical representatives of my beloved group of lycaenids in their natural habitats. I also planned to revise the Lycaenidae material housed in the collection of the MUSM and to make as many collecting trips as possible in the high Andean parts of Peru. The MUSM was my basis for the first week, where I worked in the collection not only during daytime but very often up to midnight learning that the South American way of work is rather different from the European one. My first opportunity to leave Lima was realised on the sixth day after my arrival, when I could visit the upper part of the river Rimac. For my sight the valley changed nothing since the turn of the last century where the famous, highest train line of the world, was erected, of which Rev. A. M. Moss published a beautiful photo album (Moss 1908). The trip was a test whether I can survive the high elevations or not. My first meeting with the high Andean fauna was spectacular and I was not physically hindered of my body to run after high Andean polyommatines or sulphurs. Returning to Lima I spent there still some more days completing the manuscript which lists all the unpublished polyommatine data preserved in the MUSM collection (Lamas and Bálint in prep.). I left Lima on the very beginning of February accompanied by my colleague Dr. Gerardo Lamas, his son Nicolas Lamas and his graduate student Juan Grados. We went northwards along the lunaric Pacific coast, and we stopped first to collect only above 2000 m at the edge of a little village, cca. 300 km from Lima in the valley of Rio Fortaleza. We also stopped several times later, already in the puna, but the weather was not convenient and we could not work. In the evening we arrived to Caraz, which is a little city at the foot of the magnificent mountain range "Cordillera Bianca". The two Lamas