Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)
114 Phylum Arthropoda four Vas County villages (Acsád, Csepreg, Narda and Vép— HORVATOVICH 1983). Apart from that, only a few faunistic data appear in his writings on the distribution of ground beetles (HORVATOVICH 1979, 1980, 1981a and 1982). He made use of the ground-beetle collection at the Savaria Museum in Szombathely and records in earlier publications to compile a list of the confirmed ground-beetle species in Vas County, arriving at a count of 247, after eliminating dubious data (HORVATOVICH 1992a). Although the ground beetles form one of the beetle families best known in Hungary, there is relatively little information available on small populations of 'rare species'. At the time the article was written, the West Hungarian border region contained five ground-beetle populations with 'red-book' status, with Vas County as the only known locality in Hungary (cf. VARGA et al. 1990; BÁLINT 1991; FAZEKAS 1992a). 34 The species (localities) concerned are Cymindis angularis (Kőszeg Hills), Elaphrus ullrichi (Kőszeg Hills), Bembidion fulvipes (Rum), Trechus rotundipennis (Rum) and Patrobus styriacus (Szakonyfalu), the last three also turning out to be new to the Hungarian fauna (HORVATOVICH 1992b). 35 An occurrence of Demetrias atricapillus at Tanakajd by FERENC KÁDÁR and GYŐZŐ SZÉL, in a communication on ground beetles caught in light traps in Hungary (KÁDÁR and SZÉL 1995). The ground beetles (Carabidae) caught in the Őrség were examined by GYŐZŐ SZÉL and GÁBOR HEGYESSY (1996). The standard account of the ground-beetle fauna in the district is the study by SÁNDOR HORVATOVICH mentioned earlier (HORVATOVICH 1992a). Apart from that, he gave data on Őrség ground beetles in four other articles (HORVATOVICH 1979, 1980, 1981a and 1982). These publications include 98 Őrség species, which along with those in SZÉL and HEGYESSY (1996), gives occurrence records for a total of 197 species. Two of those listed were new to the Hungarian fauna: Cicindela transversalis and Asaphidion austriacum. A further 16 species are extremely rare and known only from a handful of localities in Hungary: Dyschirius bonellii, D. digitatus, Bembidion doris, B. fluviatile, B. foraminosum, B. splendidum, B. stephensi, Poecilus lepidus, Pterostichus transversalis, Agonum antennarium, A. gracile, Platynus scrobiculatus, Amara fulvipes, A. lunicollis, A. nitida, Lebia marginata and Dromius marginellus. Many other rare and non-abundant spe34 See also KUDRNA, O. 1986. Grundlagen zu einem Artenschutzprogramm für die Tagschmetterlingsfauna in Bayern und Analyse der Schutzproblematik in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo Suppl. 6:1-90. 35 Cymindis angularis has since been found also at Mosonszolnok. GYŐZŐ SZÉL has pointed out that the specimens identified as Bembidion fulvipes by HORVATOVICH were actually B. decorum. There is no other Hungarian record of Trechus rotundipennis, which does not even have a catalogue card in the Hungarian Natural History Museum collection of Carabidae from the Carpathian Basin and was not included in the Austrian fauna catalogues either. In view of the identification difficulties and the fact that HORVATOVICH probably did not have comparative specimens, there are grounds for questioning the correctness of the record. (Personal communication by GYŐZŐ SZÉL; SZÉL, GY. 1996. Rhysodidae, Cicindelidae and Carabidae (Coleoptera) from the Bükk National Park. In MAHUNKA, S. ed. The Fauna of the Bükk National Park II, 159-222. Budapest: Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum.
