Haris Attila: Hymenoptera Research in the Carpathian Basin - Natura Somogyiensis 29. (Kaposvár, 2016)
History of the Aculeata research in the Soviet and Ukrainian part of the Carpathian Basin (Kárpátalja, Subcarpathia) from 1920
108 Natura Somogyiensis Anna Zacharova Osytshnjuk (originally: Hanna Kolmas, 25th September 1926 Bandurovka (next to Kirovograd) -13th May 1998 Kiev). She graduated at Kiev University and started her career at Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology. Anna Zacharova specialized for the genus Andrena, especially the fauna of the former Soviet Union. In Osytshnjuk et al. 2005, they published the synthesis of the Central and East Palaearctic Andrenidae. In 1959, (Osytshnjuk 1959) she published a brief report on bee collectings in the northeastern foot-hills of the Carpathians reporting 91 species. In 1961, (Osytshnjuk 1961), she summarized 3 years of intensive collection of bees in the Carpathian lowland, foothills of the Carpathians, the mountain forests and the Alpine meadows listing 265 species (about 10 000 specimens). In the next year, (Osytshnjuk 1962), Anna Zacharova published the bees of the same collecting trip, but she examined their flower visiting habits (host-plant association). Four year later, (Osytshnjuk 1966), she continued publishing the results of these expeditions, this time she provided an annotated list of 69 halictid species with collecting data and brief information on their geographical distribution, with ecological, and biological remarks. In the next year, she continued it with 6 melittid and 48 megachilid species (Osytshnjuk 1967a). In the same year, Anna Zacharova continued studying the flower visiting habits of bees in the Carpathian region of Ukraine, providing tabulated data of 173 bee species of 20 families giving their occurrence on various flowers (Osytshnjuk 1967b). Finally, in 1975, she discussed the problem of protection and nature conservation of bees and other beneficial insects providing data on bee faunas of the Ukrainian Carpathians and Crimea (Osytshnjuk 1975). Irina Emelyanovna Vikhanskaya (27th January 1931 -) She was post-graduate student and assistant at the Department of Invertabrate Zoology of Uzhhorod State University in the 50'-60's. She lived in Uzhhorod. She has 2 important papers on the pollination communities of Transcarpathia. Vikhanskaya published the results of collecting wild bees in the Zakarpatskaya province between 1957 and 1959. Over 2000 specimens were collected and 80% of them were 19 species of Halictus. She also noted 12 species of Bombus as important pollinators (Vikhanskaya 1961). In her other work, she published collecting results of wild bees between 1963 and 1964. A list of 41 species visiting flowers of apple-, pear-, plum-, cherry-, bird cherry-, apricot-trees, and dog-rose were provided completed with data on their relative abundance and diurnal activity (Vikhanskaya 1964). Aleksandr Mikolajovits Bokotey Zoological Museum of Uzhhorod National University. We know 2 papers of him discussing the Apoidea fauna of the Ukrainian Carpathians. In Bokotey 2012, Hylaeus hungarica (Alfken, 1905) was recorded as new species for Ukraine. In the same paper, 25 Colletes and Hylaeus species were recorded, mainly around Ungvár, Nagymuzsaly, Nagybakta, Beregszász etc. In Bokotey 1999, a brief review of published data on bee fauna of Transcarpathia is provided with combination of list of some apóid pollinators from the Ukrainian Carpathian Mts. Irene B. Konovalova Apoidea specialist of State Museum of Natural History, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Lviv. Irene recorded firstly Bombus gerstaeckeri Morawitz for Ukraine (Konovalova 2007b) and Bombus argillaceus Scop, for the Transcarpathian Lowland (Konovalowa 2008b). She studied the faunistics of Bombinae in the Carpathian and Transcarpathian region (Konovalova 2002,2005,2007a) and also studied their ecology, especially the effect of the sturcture of their habitats for the morphological variations of bumble bees (Konovalova 2008a). In her monograph titled "The Bumble Bees of Ukraine: Species Distribution and Floral Preferences" she provided detaild distribution maps for all species (Konovalova 2010).
