Ladislav Roller - Attila Haris - Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Sawflies of the Carpathian Basin, History and Current Research - Natura Somogyiensis 11. (Kaposvár, 2008)
History of the Symphyta research in the Carpathian Basin
History of the Symphyta research in the Carpathian Basin Earliest researches in the 18 th century (1769-1800) We do not find any faunistic data on Hymenoptera in the earliest handwritten documents except those on honeybees. The earliest mention of Vespidae is in the Magyar encyclopaedia (Hungarian encyclopaedia) by János Apáczai Csere (1625-1659) in 1653 and in the monograph titled: "Egy Jeles Vad-kert" (A fine Menagerie) by Gáspár Miskolczi (1628-1691) written at the end of the 17 th century (discussing the life history of honeybees, Vespa crabro and other Vespidae). The first data on Cynipid galls were published by Péter Melius Juhász (1536-1572) in his monograph on botany titled Herbarium published in 1578. Considering these early data, research on Symphyta began relatively late when Giovanni Antonio Scopoli obtained a lecturer position at the Selmecbánya (Banská Stiavnica) Academy (now Sopron University of Forestry). The very first institute of Symphyta research was this academy founded by Károly the third (Karl the sixth of the German-Roman Empire) in 1735. This "Berg-Schola" was reorganised in 1762 and raised to advanced, academic level by Maria Theresia (queen of Hungary and Bohemia) and renamed "Bergakademie zu Schemnitz". From 1769, Antonio Giovanni Scopoli took over the senior professor position and began researching the minerals of the surrounding mountains and the living organisms of the countryside. Another important date in the history of sawfly research is 1769, when Scopoli started the first (book-format) scientific periodical titled Anni Historico-Naturales . It comprises 5 volumes, from 1769 until 1772. In the last volume, the first sawfly data were published from the Royal Hungary (probably around Banská Stiavnica). It was a little late, but at the end of the 18 th century, the Linnean system spread all over Hungary and insect-collecting became more and more popular. János Grossinger established the first scientific public collection at Kassa (Kosice) convict. In this time, the most famous amateur entomologist was Tóbiás Koy. Finally, gróf (count) György Festetich founded the Georgicon (Academy of Agriculture) at Keszthely in 1797. At that time, no research on Symphyta was done at this school, but later, the plant protection institute of this academy (named Keszthely University of Agriculture) became the Hungarian centre of the applied Symphyta research (focusing on Athalia, Dolerus and Pachynematus spp.) in the 20 th century. Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (1723 Cavalese - 1788 Pavia) was the first scientist who studied the sawfly fauna of the Carpathian Basin (Fig. 1). In 1769, Fig. 1: Giovanni Antonio Scopoli
