Nógrád Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve XIX. (1994)

Tanulmányok - Természettudomány - Hír János–Mészáros Zoltán. Megkésett emlékezés Lipthay Bélára, Nógrád megye első természettudományos muzeológusára

Resümee In memóriám Béla Lipthay Twenty years ago Béla Lipthay the excellent entomologist and palaeobotanist died. His name is mémorable in the history of the Hungárián science for his butterfly collection consists of 60000 specimen. Another important activity of him was the foundation of a paleobotanical collection with 1200 specimen wich is the basis of the natural scientific collection of the Nógrád Conty Museums. He was born in 25.5.1892 in a noble family in Lovrin in the Banat. (This village is in the territory of Románia from 1919). He was interrested in the natural sciences from his childhood especially in the botany and the zoology. In spite of this fact he was registered in the Technical Faculty of the University of Zürich, because zhe influence of his parents. The outbreak of the First World War prevented him from complète his studies. During the war he servicéd in the field. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy he got married and managed the Iand of the family. In his sparetime he began the collection and study of butterflies in the Banat and the alpine region of the Southern Carpathian Mountains. The specimen prepared by him were inventes by the British Museum as well. In 1944 the family repatriated to Hungary, and bought the Forgách Castle at Szécsény. During the communist regime Béla Lipthay offered teh Castle for the State and found employment as museologist in the Palóc Museum at Balassagyarmat. His influential friend were Gábor Andreánszky, the famous scientist of paleobotany and András Tasnádi-Kubacska the vertebrate paleontologist. He began the collection of plant fossils under guidance of them. He managed the field works with rucksasck and trav

elled to the localities by his scooter. The memoirs of his widow (ODESCALCHI E. 1987) describes the private life of the family. His first locality is Ipolytarnóc, which is a famous Lower Miocène paleoflora HABLY L. (1985). (At présent it is an open-air geological muséum demonstrating the plant fossils and animal footprints KORDOS L. 1985.A) The other locality is the Paris Valley at Nógrádszakái. Béla Lipthay collected 757 specimen from here. The matériái has Middle Miocène (Upper Badenian) age (KORDOS-SZAKÁLY M. 1984) Before the death of him the butterfly collection was invented into the collection of the Natural History Museum of Budapest. Trje paleontological material stayed in Szécsény. In 1984 it was transported to Pásztó, and up to the récent times it is servicéd by the first author of this article. IRODALOM (REFERENCES) ANDREÁNSZKY G. (1959): Die Flora der sarmatischen Stufe in Ungarn. - Akadémiai Kiadó, Bp., p.1-360. BATKO L. (1961-62): A nógrádi barnakőszénterület földtani vizsgálata (Geological investigations of the browncoal area of Nógrád). - Manuscript, MÁFI adattár (Archivum of the Hung. Geol. Inst.). BARTKÓ L. (1985): Ipolytarnóc földtani vázlata. (Geology of Ipolytarnóc). - Geol. Hung. Ser. Pal., 44.,p.24-71., Bp. HABLY L. (1985): Ipolytarnóc alsó miocén korú flórája (Early Miocène plant. fossilis from Ipolytarnóc, N Hungary). - Geol. Hung. Ser. Pal., 45., p.77-255., Bp. HÁMOR G. (1985): A nógrád-cserháti kutatási terület földtani viszonyai (Geology of the NógrádCserhát area). - Geol. Hung. Ser. Geol, 22., p. 1-307., Bp. HERMANN M. - EMSZT К. (1940): Der untermiozäne Glaukonit-Sandstein von Ipolytarnóc. Annales Hist.-nat. Mus. Natn. Hung., 33., p.99-106., Bp. HÍR J. (1993): Présence of Chalicotherium grande (BLAINVILLE, 1849) (Mammalia, Peissodactyla) in the Paris Valley az Nógrádszakái (North Hungary, Nógrád County). - Nógrád Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve, 18., p.233-246., Salgótarján. JABLONSZKY J. (1914-15): A tarnóczi mediterrán-korú flóra (über die mediterrane Flora von Tarnóc. - Földtani Intézet Évkönyve (Annales of the Hung. Geol. Inst.), 22., 4., p.227-274. 163