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

FOLIA ENTOMOLOGICA HUNGARICA ROVARTANI KÖZLEMÉNYEK Volume 63 2002 pp. 5-16. A survey of the Oribatida fauna of Madagascar (Acari: Oribatida)* S. MAHUNKA Abstract: A list of oribatids recorded from Madagascar complete with literature references. Minor nomenclatorial corrections, new combination and synonymisation. Key words: Acari, Oribatida, fauna list, Madagascar INTRODUCTION The research of oribatids of Madagascar started in the beginning of the 1960s. It was Balogh (1960, 1962a, b) who having received the rich material of Dr M. R. Paulian, the director of the Insitut de Recherce Scientifique de Madagascar under French auspices began to study, elaborate and also publish scientific papers. The samples had come from numerous collecting localities and highly versatile biotopes, consequently, the author described many new species. His endeavours focused the attention, which, of course, was natural and quite expectable, to the uniqueness and extraordinary character of that fauna. He described altogether 47 species, all were new to science, many of them were type species of higher taxa. This research was followed by a longer spell. So it was 1979 when Dr Dénes Balázs, the renown geographer, traveller and collector brought some soil samples and presented them to the Hungarian Natural History Museum. A part of the samples was elaborated of which a few species have been described (Mahunka 1983). In the meantime, there was another break in the research, nevertheless, novel collecting activity was started and new materials were available especially in two lines. Partly, the scientific officers of the Muséum d'Histoire naturelle, Geneva (Dr B. Hauser, head of the Arthropoda Department and Dr C. Lienhard, research officer in the same department) made extensive collectings in 1989 in the territory of * This study was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA 38319).