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

Phylum Arthropoda 125 Order Hymenoptera (ants, bees, sawflies and wasps) The hymenopterous insects (ants, bees, sawflies and wasps) are among the most numerous order, but study of them in the West Hungarian border region has not had a long history. The first data come in the oft-cited FREH (1878). Data for other species can be found in KUNCZ (1880), CSIGAHÁZY (1898) and JABLONOWSKI (1898). The Hymenoptera chapter of Fauna Regni Hungáriáé has occurrence data for 3 6 species, but most come from the Kőszeg collections of JÁNOS PÁVEL (MOCSÁRY 1896c). SÁNDOR MOCSÁRY gave Fertő records in a later work (MOCSÁRY 1898). JENŐ VÁNGEL (1905C) gave further occurrence data. Four decades later, SÁNDOR PONGRÁCZ (1936) mentioned the occurrence of two species in Kőszeg. Hymenoptera specimens collected in 1936-7 by staff of the Zoosystematics Department of the Péter Pázmány University of Sciences in Budapest were processed by LÁSZLÓ MÓCZÁR, with cooperation from GYULA MÉHES and GUSZTÁV SZELÉNYI. SO were collections made by SZELÉNYI at Kisharang Meadow near Kőszeg on May 15 and August 13, 1937. A year later, ALADÁR VISNYA resumed the collecting and the processing was joined by JÁNOS GYŐRFI and ANTON ROMAN, a Stockholm museum specialist, the findings being published in two parts (MÓCZÁR 1938a; GYŐRFI et al. 1940). For completeness' sake, the authors repeated the data on faunistic work done in the meantime (MÓCZÁR 1938b and 1939a; SZELÉNYI 1938). The two registers give the occurrence of 848 species in the Kőszeg Hills. Changes in classification and taxonomy have left some of those findings out of date or erroneous, so that lists of species new to science or the Hungarian fauna will be omitted here. Lively faunistic research throughout the Carpathian Basin in subsequent years led to a succession of publications that included new Hymenoptera distribution records (SZELÉNYI 1941a and 1941b; ERDŐS 1946, 1947a, 1947b and 1948; MÓCZÁR 1952 and 1968). LÁSZLÓ MÓCZÁR dealt at length with the hymenopterous insect associations and various Apoidea that pollinate alfalfa (Medicago sativa). His data include Western Hungarian examples (MÓCZÁR 1939b and 1961). JENŐ PAPP included some Fertő data in his treatment of the Apoidea fauna of the Bakony Hills (PAPP 1963 and 1965). Both JÓZSEF ERDŐS and GUSZTÁV SZELÉNYI did taxonomic and faunistic research into chalcidoid wasps (Chalcidoidea). ERDŐS described a species new to science found in the Kőszeg Hills, named Apoglyphis transdanuviana (ТниRÓCZY 1992). In another paper, he deals with the parasitic wasps of Sopron (ERDŐS 1957). JÁNOS GYŐRFI,

44 apart from dealing with questions of forestry protection, contributed much as a hymenopterist to knowledge of the ichneumon wasp fauna (Ichneumonidae) and other insects in Sopron and vicinity. At this point, it is worth making a short diversion to introduce the zoological collection at the Forestry Protection Faculty of the Sopron University of MÁTYÁS, V. 1967. Dr. Győrfi János. Soproni Szemle 21:89-91.