Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 43 (1998)( Pécs, 1999)

Természettudományok - Ábrahám, Levente–Kovács, Tibor: A report on the Hungarian alderfly fauna (Megaloptera: Sialidae)

A Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 43 (1998) 49-56 Pécs, 1999 A report on the Hungarian alderfly fauna (Megaloptera: Sialidae) ÁBRAHÁM Levente & KOVÁCS Tibor ABRAHAM, L. & KOVÁCS, T. : A report on the Hungarian alderfly fauna (Megaloptera: Sialidae). Abstract. The authors summarize all available information on the Hungarian alderflies fauna, which come from literatures, the museum collections and their own fieldwork. All faunistical data, distribution maps and seasonal activity graphs of four Hungarian Stalls species (S. lutaria, S. morio, S. fuliginosa and S. nigripes) are also presented. Some remarks representing faunistical, ecological and zoogeographical points of view are also made. Introduction The order Megaloptera is considered to be among the most primitive of the holometabolous insect orders and species of alderflies are truly aquatic as their larvae live in water for a shorter or longer period. This order is one of the smallest ones in the world of insects. It consists of about 300 described species worldwide (NEW, THEISCHINGER 1993) but some of them are supposed to be synonym species (ASPÖCK et al. 1980). Recently taxonomic position of Megaloptera has changed its species and those of Raphidioptera were related to be a suborder of Neuroptera as consequence of their external morphology, however, these orders are considered to be of three distinct orders nowadays. Megaloptera has two families (Sialidae, Corydalidae) but only Sialidae species live in Europe. ASPÖCK et al. (1978) listed 6 species but a bit later VSHIVKOVA (1985) described further 5 species belonging to Sialis genus found in Europe as well. Although they are supposed to be synonyms by ASPÖCK et HÖLZEL (1994). The Hungarian Megaloptera fauna has 4 species (SziRÁKi et al. 1992): Sialis lutaria (Linnaeus, 1758) Sialis morio Klingstedt, 1932 Sialis fuliginosa Pictet, 1836 Sialis nigripes Pictet, 1865 There has been little interest in researching of Megaloptera fauna shown by Hungarian entomologist up to now. There are several reasons: the order of Megaloptera has few species, it was supposed to be a family or a suborder of Neuroptera, all of their species are aquatic; adults in Hungary are active mainly in Spring. There are no effective collecting devices to take a large number of these insects. Otherwise the aquatic insects are less known than the terrestrial ones. Due to the above mentioned reasons there has not been any original study from taxonomical, faunistical and ecological points of view on them in Hungary yet. For a long time only two species, Sialis lutaria and Sialis fuliginosa the commonest species in Europe, were known in Hungary (MocsÁRY 1899, STEINMANN 1967). Two other species of the order, as new species in Hungarian fauna, were found only a short time ago (ASPÖCK et al. 1980, SzrRÁKl 1992). So we can only get pieces of information on their characteristics, larvae development, habitat and ecology of larvae from foreign literature (BROOKER 1979, DALL 1989, ELLIOT 1996, KAISER 1977). Our main aim is to summarize our knowledge on the Hungarian alderfleis fauna based on the data collection from literature and different collections of Hungarian museums and to supply information from faunistical, ecological and zoogeographical points of view. Material and method Recording information on the Hungarian alderfleis fauna is based on three different sources. At first, we checked all Hungarian literature on Megaloptera (Neuropteroidea) and every faunistical data were recorded to give the distribution of species in Hungary. Secondly, we redetermined all Sialis specimens in the collections of Hungarian museums (Bakony Natural History Museum, Zirc; Janus Pannonius Museum Natural History Department, Pécs; Hungarian Natural History Museum (HNHM), Budapest; Mátra Natural History Museum, Gyöngyös; Somogy County Museum Natural History Department, Kaposvár and Újhelyi's collection, Budapest, later deposited in HNHM). Thirdly, new faunistical data, both adults and larvae, were collected by the authors. Adults were taken by foliage netting on the bank of running water and the shore of standing water. Beside a