Haris Attila: Hymenoptera Research in the Carpathian Basin - Natura Somogyiensis 29. (Kaposvár, 2016)
History of the Aculeata research in Hungary from 1920
Haris, A.: Hymenoptera Research in the Carpathian Basin 75 entomology appears. With the end of the communist era, the international cooperation and common research programs became again intensive. Johann Dietrich Alfken (11th June 1862, Frankfurt - 14th February 1945, Rüthersdorf), German entomologist, specialized in Apoidea. Alfken described 10 Aculeata, mainly Andrena species from Hungary. He was probably in friendly relationship with Endre Zilahi-Kiss, he was his source of Hungarian bee species, there is no record wether he was personally in Hungary: "Ich verdanke diese eigenartige Andrena- Art Herrn Bezirksarzt Dr. Andr. Kiss in Bethlen in Ungarn. Die Weibchen wurden am 26. Apr. 1910 bei Bogsän. die Männchen vom 14-26. Apr. 1910 ebenfalls bei Bogsän und in früheren Jahren bei Hadad gesammelt. Die Typen befinden sich in Herrn Dr. Kiss' und in meiner Sammlung, sowie im Ungarischen National-Museum". In that time, as we know from Endre Zilahi-Kiss (Zilahi-Kjss 1915), he lived and worked in Bremen. For a period, he worked for the Übersee Museum in Bremen as entomological assistant. Alfken described seven new Apoidea species from Hungary, 5 of them are Andrena species. Andrena mehelyi Alfken, 1936 was dedicated to Lajos Méhelyi (see this entry separately). The other species are: Andrena roscipes Alfken, 1933, Andrena submicans Alfken, 1936, Andrena setigera Alfken, 1911, Andrena susterai Alfken, 1914, Prosopis dubitata Alfken, 1904 and Anthidium florentinum ssp. kis si Alfken, 1935 (Alfken 1911, 1914, 1933, 1935, 1936). In "Die Bienenfauna von Westpreußen", Alfken separately indicated the occurrence of each species in Hungary (approximately 55 faunistic data) and also in Transylvania (approximately 10 faunistic data) (Alfken 1912). One parap- type of Osmia tenuispina Alfken, 1936 was collected in Simontomya, very likely by Ferenc Pillich. These specimen later proved to be a separate species. Reinhold Heinrich Meyer (13th August 1892 Rathenow - 12th December 1944 Darmstadt). Meyer studied between 1914-1916, in Jena and he was employed by Merck Plant Protection Laboratory in Darmstadt from 1924. In his spare time, Meyer collected Hymenoptera and Diptera. His collection lost, only small part remained in the Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt. Between 1922 and 1938, Reinhold Meyer was editor of magazine Konowia. He died in 1944, during an air raid in Darmstadt. Meyer identified the Thyreus and Crocisa species of the Hungarian Natural History Museum. Most of them are exotic species, but he published four, mostly indefinite Hungarian data as well (Meyer 1922). József Gelei (20th August 1885 Árkos - 20th May 1952 Budapest) zoologist, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. József Gelei graduated at Kolozsvár University where he studied chemistry and natural history. He received teacher degree, than he completed and defended his doctoral thesis. After his years in Kolozsvár, Gelei had postgraduate studies in Graz. He returned back to Kolozsvár and worked in the next 10 years at the Zoological Institute. After this 10 years period, he taught at Unitarian College of Kolozsvár and became curator of the Transylvanian Museum Society. The next years of his career, Gelei spent partly at Szeged University, Department of Zoology, and Kolozsvár University than again at Szeged University, but this time at the Faculty of Medical Sciences. This fluctuation between Szeged-Kolozsvár (now Cluj Napoca)- Szeged was the reason of the actual status of Transylvania. Till 1920 Transylvania was part of Hungary, after 1920 Hungary lost Transylvania and as a result of the 2nd Vienna Award Hungary received back one part of Transylvania. After the WW2, Hungary lost again its Transylvanian territories. This is the explanation of the migration of László Móczár between Szeged-Kolozsvár either. Gelei has one paper on Aculeata: he studied and described the control of wasps in fruit orchards (Gelei 1929).
