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

Konstantin Vasic (Sumarski fakultét Beograd) described a new pamphilid species, Acantholyda serbica Vasic, 1962 (in ZIVCJINOVIC et. al 1962) and published a paper on the morphology and biology of the Serbian Acantholyda species completed with idenification keys (VASIC 1966). Franjo Perovic with Srecko Leiner (both of them are entomologist of the Natural History Museum Croatia, Zagreb) published the checklist of sawflies of Croatia reporting 255 species from the Southern part of the Carpathian Basin (NE. Croatia, probably Slavonia) (PEROVIC and LEINER 1996). With Enrih Merdic and Gordana Perovic, he published a paper on the sawflies of the Kopacki rit Nature Park reporting 73 species (PEROVIC et. al 2006). Few sawflies from the Croatian Carpatian Basin were also reported in his early work on the Yugoslavian fauna (PEROVIC 1977). Symphyta research in the Romanian part of the Carpathian Basin from 1920 The Romanian Symphyta researches started only in the 50's of the 20

th century although the very first data of gall making sawflies were published by two botanists, namely Alexandru Borza and M. Ghiuta (BORZA and GHIUTA 1938; GHIUTA 1937a, b, 1940). Vasile Ionescu (1912 - ?) established a large private entomological collection including 3,000 Symphyta specimens that he donated to the Natural History Museum PiatraNeamt. In his 3 papers, he discussed new and interesting species for the sawfly fauna of Romania (IONESCU 1954, 1962 and 1969). He also published the sawfly catalogue of the Piatra Neamt Museum listing 240 species (IONESCU 1974); most of them were captured in Neamt county. Aurelian Popescu-Gorj and Ion Draghia (Fig. 24) published two monographs on the leaf mining insects including numerous Symphyta species (POPESCU-GORJ and DRAGHIA 1966, DRAGHIA 1967). Ana Precupetu (after her marriage Precupetu-Zamfirescu, Institute of Biology, Bucharest) published a paper on pamphilid and cephid sawfly species of Romania (PRECUPETU 1958) and also on the Orussidae of Romania (PRECUPETU 1963). With the coauthorship of Stephan Negru (Crysididae and Cleptidae specialist of Grigore Antipa Museum) they studied the woodwasp fauna of Romania. Xenia Scobiola-Palade (1911 Moseni - ?, curator of Hymenoptera of Grigore Antipa Museum, Bucuresti, Symphyta and Aculeata specialist, Fig. 24) with Victoria Iuga Raica (head of the Entomological department of Grigore Antipa Museum, Bucuresti) established the Hymenoptera collection after the Second World War cooperating with Romanian and foregin specialists. Victoria Iuga - Raica suggested the acquisition of Hymenoptera collection of Eugen Worell (doctor of medicine in Sibiu). Thus they enriched the museum's collection with 758 Hymenoptera species and subspecies in 1953. Xenia Scobiola-Palade intensively studied the sawfly fauna of Transylvania and the Romanian Carpathians and published the most interesting specimens from the collection of G. Antipa Museum (SCOBIOLA-PALADE 1971, 1972 and 1986) and also compiled the Symphyta catalogue of the Brukenthal Museum, Nagyszeben (Sibiu) (SCOBIOLA-PALADE 1967). In her four papers series, she reported 29 new species for the sawfly fauna of Romania (SCOBIOLA 1960, 1965, 1968 and 1970). She also published the catalogue of Argidae, Cimbicidae and Diprionidae species of Romania completed with precise collection data (SCOBIOLA 1982). With the coauthorship of Iuga-Raica and Atena Rosea (1930-1976), they published a 5 papers series on rare and new Symphyta species ofRomania (IUGA and SCOBIOLA 1955, IUGA, SCOBIOLA and ROSCA 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960). In these papers, they discussed the distribution of these species and provided high