S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 63. (Budapest, 2002)

seule) that were reared from seeds of G. triacanthos grown at the university campus. The third author has seen also one specimen of M. tonkineus from Yunnan (China) and inspected in the collection of the Muséum Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris) one specimen of the closely related species M. tsinensis (Pic, 1923), comb, nov., from China that was reared from "Gleditschia" Morimoto (1990) mentions a third species, M. dorsalis (Fahraeus, 1839), from G. japonica Miq. Considering the tropical origin of this species, it was surprising to find that it infested the pods of Gleditsia triacanthos L. (Leguminosae) in Hungary outdoors. This tree species was introduced at least 100 years ago from the USA where it is autochthonous. The majority of Gleditsia species occurs in Asia, from India to Japan and the Philippine Islands and all Gleditsia species are very much alike botanically (Polhill & Raven 1981). It is, therefore, not surprising that the East Asian bruchid species accepted the North American congeneric tree species as host in Europe. It remains an enigma, however, how the bruchid has been introduced to Hungary? The pods, that are 20 to 40 cm long with numerous bean-size brown seeds, were first collected on 20th January 2001 under a single G. triacanthos tree at the campus of the Eötvös Loránd University situated in the very heart of the inner city of Budapest (8th district, Múzeum körút 4.). The pods were transferred to the laboratory of the Plant Protection Institute. The first adults emerging from the pods after a few weeks were sent to the third author for identification. Pods collected at the same site on 10th to 20th October 2001 were also found infested. Thus, this bruchid population survived through the winter of 2000-2001 in the pods (seeds) on or under the Gleditsia tree at the university campus, although between 15th October 2000 and 31st March 2001 the air temperature reached an absolute minimum of -8.8°C and the minimum of the daily mean temperature was -6.6°C! Furthermore, the daily minimum was during 38 days and the daily mean temperature during 21 days under 0°C! (The temperature data were provided by a station of the National Meteorological Service situated in urban surrounding that is similar to the university campus.) This means that some ontogenetic stage or stages of M. tonkineus over-wintered under such meteorological conditions. The data of collection and the laboratory observations on the bruchid'

s behaviour indicate that it can multiply continuously during the warm season in the fruits of G. triacanthos. Namely, some fruits always remain on the trees until the next year, so the females can find them there. Furthermore, as the adults are strong flyers they can easily find also the fallen fruits under the trees or on neighbouring trees. In conclusion, it seems very likely that this population of M. tonkineus has become more or less adapted at least to the microclimate of Hungary's urban areas. If