Uherkovich Ákos: A Villányi-hegység botanikai és zoológiai alapfelmérése (Dunántúli Dolgozatok Természettudományi Sorozat 10., 2000)

Nagy, Antal & Nagy, Barnabás : The Orthoptera of the Villány Hilss (South Hungary) - A Villányi-hegység egyenesszárnyú (Orthoptera) faunája

NAGY, A. & NAGY, В.: THE ORTHOPTERA FAUNA OF THE VILLANY HILLS (S HUNGARY) Results and discussion The Orthoptera fauna 45 Orthoptera species of two orders (21 Ensifera and 24 Caelifera) have been found up to the present (Table 1). This number - in comparison with other members of the Hungarian Middle Mountains - is relatively low according to the limited number of habitats with small dimensions. The nearly total missing of wet and semi-wet grasslands is the most important character of this region. For this reason the number and relative frequency of the species living in such habitats are low. The sampling of the grasslands of the hillfoots and the northern slopes may result in some hygrophylous species too. The areas of the steppe grasslands and the rocky grasslands are getting smaller according to the expanding weedy shrubs on the hillfoots. Some of the species known earlier are disappeared (e.g. Acrida ungarica and Acrotylus insubricus from the Szársomlyó). The occurrence of Chorthippus eisentrauti seems to be uncertain. It could be Chorthippus biguttulus hedickei as well because the males of the two species are hardly differentiable so it needs further investigations. Biogeographical analysis Most of the Orthoptera species of the region can be divided into two major faunistic types: the Siberian and the Mediterranean spreading circles. South-western boundaries of the area of Siberian elements tend to the southern boundary of the steppe zone, and these are the northern boundaries of the Mediterranean elements and the Mediterranean climatic zone (Adamovic line) (RÁcz 1998a, NAGY, A. 1999). This idea substantially corresponds to the concept of UVAROV (1929) concerning the origin of Orthoptera fauna of the Palearctic and Europe. These boundaries cross through Hungary, therefore elements of both major faunistic types can be found. The ratio of the Mediterranean elements is the highest in South Hungary, because of the strong submediterranean climatic and faunistic effects on this region. These effects are observable e.g. on Mollusca (SÓLYMOS 1996), Noctuidea (VARGA & GYULAI 1978) and higher plants (DÉNES 1995). The ratio of southern elements (Ponto-, Holo-, Extra-, Nord-, European-Mediterranean, Balcanic, Balcanic-Moesian, Dacián and Ponto-Caspian) of the Orthoptera fauna - considering relative frequency of species - is 65.6 % in the average of the last four years (Fig. 2). The most important members of this biogeographical type are the Ensiferan Isophya modesta, I. modestior, Phaneroptera nana, Poecilimon fussi (Fig. 4), Sagapedo, Rhacocleis germanica and the Caeliferan Acrida ungarica, Pezotettix giornae, Odontopodisma decipiens (Fig. 3), Ailopus strepens, Acrotylus insubricus. Some of these species might occur even in the northern regions of the Hungarian Middle Mountains, but their ratio is much lower [e.g. in the Aggtelek Karst 47.1% (RÁcz et al. 1996), in the Bükk Mountains about 40.0% (NAGY, В. & RÁcz 1996) and in the Bakony Mountains 47.5% (RÁcz 1979)]. The Siberian spreading circle is represented by Angarian faunal elements (e.g. Calliptamus italicus, Stenobothrus lineatus etc.). Besides this two major groups there are other faunal groups (Siberian- and European-Polycentric and Polycentric) as well, but the ratio of these are very low.