Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 23/2. (1996) (Szombathely, 1996)

Merkl, Ottó: The species of 27 beetle families (Coleoptera) from Őrség (Western Hungary)

MERKL, О.: The species of 27 beetle families (Coleoptera) from Őrség, Western Hungary As in other animal groups, the species assemblage written up in this paper exhibits the Atlantic and Alpine influence which otherwise characterize the climate and vegetation of the whole Western Transdanubia. Two ladybirds (Scymnus ferrugatus and Coccinella hieroglyphica) provide strong evidence of this effect: they are rather frequent in the area investigated while absent in other parts of Hungary or occur under exceptional circumstances (outside Western Transdanubia, both species are known only one further locality). Species typical for xerothermic habitats are rare here. Large part of the area of the Őrség is covered by coniferous woodlands, mainly Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris). Therefore, it is no wonder that the proportion of the species associated with pine is relatively high in the material investigated. This is, however, only partly due to the extensive pine stands. Special emphasis was made by some coleopterists on the collecting in conifer forests which is a habitat usually neglected by coleopterists in other regions. The activity of Attila PODLUSSÁNY is especially remarkable, who, hoping to get rare weewils, reared beetles from cones and obtained rarely encountered species of Anobiidae. The collecting efforts of our coleopterists are respected very much but, as far as the beetle fauna of the Őrség in general is concerned, there remains much to be collected and studied. Beetles to be collected by singling, beating and sweepnetting are represented by a considerable number of specimens in the material investigated, but species taken by pitfall trapping, sifting and various elaborate methods are rather underrepresented. PRESENTATION OF DATA For the material studied, the locality, the date of collecting and the name of collector(s) are submitted followed by the number of specimens and the abbreviation of depository in parentheses. If specimens are known from the same locality but from different date and collector, the locality is not repeated. For a few very common species, only the localities are listed. Hungarian localities of 14 remarkable species are depicted on UTM-maps arranged into eight figures. At these species, the localities outside the Őrség are listed in the text complemented with the UTM-codes in parentheses. Acronyms indicating the depositories of the investigated specimens are as follows: pcIR private collection of István ROZNER, Budapest pcSzD private collection of Dezső SZALÓKI, Budapest HNHM Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest MM Mátra Museum, Gyöngyös SM Savaria Museum, Szombathely 104