Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)

106 Phylum Arthropoda Figure 12.5. Dicheirotrichus obsoletus lacustris (a) and Chrysolina chalcites (b), illustrated in IMRE FRIVALDSZKY'S Revealing Facts about the Fauna of Hungary (1865) The 1826 catalogue of PIERRE-FRANÇOIS-MARIE-AUGUSTE DEJEAN includes a description of Carabus soproniensis with 'environs de Œdenbourg en Hongrie' as its locus typicus. The taxon, which occurs in the Western half of Hungary and the hills of Transdanubia, is known nowadays as Carabus cancellatus nigricornis. LÁSZLÓ ÁDÁM (1996d) proposed that it should be called Carabus semistriatus soproniensis.

28 The Viennese entomologist LUDWIG MILLER (1858) also collected beetles in the Fertő district and included 21 species in his register (Figure 12.4). In 1865, IMRE FRIVALDSZKY produced the first study to recognize and emphasize the special nature of the Hungarian fauna, presenting species characteristic of the Carpathian Basin in terms of zoogeography and fauna development, and including 13 fine tables (FRIVALDSZKY I. 1865) (Figures 12.5 and 12.9). He included some species from the Sopron and Fertő areas that he considered typical. Since only FERENC OCSKÓT OCSKAY and LUDWIG MILLER had hitherto provided coleopterological data from the area, the list was confined to beetles. Let us include that list of beetles from the West Hungarian border region here, out of respect for the groundbreaking importance of FRIVALDSZKY'S study to the comprehension of the Hungarian fauna (Figure 12.6). 28 ÁDÁM'S proposal of Carabus semistriatus soproniensis is problematic in that no monograph has ever used the specific name semistriatus instead of cancellatus. The subspecific name sopronensis was identified as a synonym in 1946 by ERNŐ CSÍKI and the taxon has been known as Carabus cancellatus nigricornis since then. (Personal communication from GYŐZŐ SZÉL.) Œdenbourg is a French form of the German name for Sopron.