Haris Attila: Hymenoptera Research in the Carpathian Basin - Natura Somogyiensis 29. (Kaposvár, 2016)
History of the Aculeata research in the Romanian part of the Carpathian Basin from 1920
138 Natura Somogyiensis and intensively researched Prahova County, publishing species from Teleajenului Valley, Southern Carpathians. In 1972, she published a checklist of family Megachilidae from Romania in which she listed 89 species and 8 variations. Mariana Aftene also studied the Megachilidae collection of the “Gr. Antipa” Museum of Natural History, Bucharest publishing 4 new records for Romanian fauna. In 1996, she defended her PhD thesis at the "Al. I. Cuza" University of Iasi, titled "Contribution to the study of family Megachilidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) from Romania" including 22 species recorded firstly for the Romanian fauna. She had several papers, in which we may find faunistic data from the Carpathian Basin (some of them from the very South-Eastern margin of Carpaths) from the valley of river Teleajen, Prahova county and Moldavia (Aftene 1972, 1973, 1976 and 1979b). She also published the Apoidea collection of the Ploiesti Museum of Natural Sciences (Aftene 1979a). Goagä (Dima) Aristita (11th July 1942, Onesti, jud. Bacau - ). Curator at the “Ion Borcea” Museum of Natural Sciences Bacau between 1969-2002, and she was head of scientific department between 1992 and 2002. Her research was focused on family Halictidae from Moldova region, although she collected and studied material all around Romania. In 1972, she published the first synthesis of Halictidae species of Romania based on compiled literature and personal research in the series "Fauna Republica Socialista Romania" (Goaga 1972). She was particularly interested in Halictid bees as polinators of alfalfa and sunflower (Goaga 1974, 1998, 1999b). The title of her PhD thesis was "Bio-ecological study regarding population of wild bees from family Halictidae and their importance in pollination of crops and wild flora from Romania" (Goaga 1999a). In her thesis, she completed a lists of 125 species collected from various localities of Romania, 14 species were new records. Her faunistic works include papers on the Apoidea collection of Oltenia Museum, Ceahlau Masiv (Csalhó Mts.), Bisceriani in Nemat county, South West Romania, Bacau district, Moldavia (Goagá, Chimiliu and Tomozei 1999, Goaga and Tomozei 1997, 2000a, b, 2002, Goaga, 1974, 1983, 1992, 1994, 2003, Paraschivescu and Goaga 1994). Aristitia Goagá has 2 papers in which she discusses the distribution of Halictus marginatus Brülle and Halictus sexcinctus F. providing distribution data from the Carpathian Basin either (Goaga 2000, 2002). Simona Fesci studied bumble bees from southern Carpathin Mts. She graduated in geography, but later she completed her PhD thesis in ecology of bumble bees from Cindrel Mountains. Simona Fesci specialized for genera Bombus (including Psythirus) and Xylocopa providing valuable faunistic data from the Carpathian Mts. including Cindrel Mts. (Szebeni Mts.) (Fesci 1971, 1972, 1973, 1979, 1980, 1984a, b). Mariana Pascu (1951-2011, curator of Hymenoptera, Brukenthal Museum Nagyszeben-Sibiu and assistant director for a period either). Important work of Mariana Pascu for the fauna of the Carpathian Basin is her series of papers in which she published the Aculeata collection of Sibiu (Nagyszeben) Museum (Pascu 1979, 1996, 1984, 1996b, 1997a, 2004, 2006, 2007). Additionally, she has 3 faunistic papers on the wild bee fauna of Sibiu (Nagyszeben) Basin (Pascu 1994, 1996a, 2001). With Dr. Eckbert Schneider, they published a common paper on the Schneider entomological collection, as they wrote: "The Dr. Eckbert Schneider collection includes over 20000 pieces of insects, collected from all over the country and mainly from southern Transylvania." (Pascu and Schneider 1998). The Eckbert Schneider (former curator of Sibiu Museum) collection was donated to Sibiu (Nagyszeben) Museum in 1985.
