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

he was appointed to senior professor of the Metallurgical, Chemical and Mineralogical Department of the Selmecbánya Academy (which was later relocated to Sopron when the Royal Hungary lost the former Hungarian Highland and and now, it is called Sopron University of Forestry). In his ten years in Hungary, he made very valuable contributions to the knowledge of the Hungarian flora and fauna describing numerous new species. During his professorship in Selmecbánya (1769-1779) he wrote 7 important books: the Crystallographia Hungarica, the Introductio ad históriám naturalem and the Anni i-v historico naturális series. In the last book of Anni historico-naturalis (SCOPOLI 1772), two sawfly species were reported, namely Tenthredo femorata Linnaeus, 1758 = Fig. 2: Fraftz von Paula Schrank Cimbex femorata (Linnaeus, 1758) and Tenthredo mdrginata Linnaeus, 1767 = Pseudocavellaria amerinae (Linnaeus, 1758). These species were the very first sawflies recorded from Royaf Hungary. Although Scopoli's collection was destroyed in two fires in his house in Idria, he reestablished it and took it to Pavia with him when he left the Academy. Dr. Peter Tóth (Miskolc University) tried to find Scopoli's collection in Pavia and in Verona, but without any success. Scopoli's intensive correspondence with Karl Linnaeus and with the professors of the Budapest University (Mátyás Pillér and Ignác Born) are also important documents of his scientific works in this period. After Scopoli, in 1781, Franz von Paula Schrank (1747 Varnbach - 1835 München, director of the royal botanical gardens in München) recorded one species, namely Arge enodis (Linnaeus, 1767) from Tyrnaviae (Nagyszombat, Trnava) in his monography, on the Austrian fauna titled: Enumeration insectorum Austriae (SCHRANK 1781) (Fig. 2). Johann Ludwig Christ (1739-1813, German Lutheran clergyman and Hymenoptera specialist) described the first new species from the Carpathian Basin (Christ, 1791). Beyond the description of Sirex hungaricus Christ, 1791 = Uroceros gigas (Linnaeus, 1758), no other Symphyta species were reported from this area in his book, titled Naturgeschichte, Classification und Nomenclatur der Insecten vom Bienen, Wespen und A m eisengesch lech t. János KeréSztély .Grossinger (1728 Komárom (now Komárno) - 1803 Komárom, Jesuit monk, directqf'b f the Nagyszombat (Trnava) seminary and professor of linguistics and grammatics, later director of the Kassa (now Kosice) convict and professor of theology) established the first public natural history collection in Kassa (Kosice). His major work in natural history is the monograph series titled Universa História Physica Regni Hungária (Fig. 3). The first four books described the fauna of Royal Hungary including insects in the 4th book. The fifth book discussed the dendrology. The other 5 books (botany and geology) remained in manuscript and are preserved in the manuscript-collection of the Hungarian National Museum. He accurately described the morphology and life history of insects including the 2 genera of Symphyta known in his time, namely