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

Historical survey 51 records with present-day ones sadly confirms the decay over time and the destructive effects of human activity (Figure 2.32). Crucial to exploration of the fauna and flora of the Kőszeg Hills was the work of ALADÁR VISNYA (1878-1959) (Figure 2.33).

142 Along with many other activities, he headed the Kőszeg Museum of Local History and Knowledge of the Native Land that was founded in 1932. Kőszeg was visited in 1933 by GÉZA HORVÁTH, an outstanding researcher into Hungarian entomology, who made collections in the Kőszeg district in company with ALADÁR VISNYA. The specimens they found and those sent by HORVÁTH subsequently formed the bases of the insect collection at Kőszeg Museum. Through HORVÁTH, VISNYA became acquainted with ENDRE DUDICH, director of the Zoosystematics Department of the Péter Pázmány University of Sciences in Budapest. In 1936, Kőszeg Museum reached an agreement with the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest and Professor DUDICH'S department to make a detailed faunistic survey of the Kőszeg Hills. 'Department assistants and more advanced students' consequently arrived in Kőszeg under the professor's leadership on May 19, 1936 and spent five days collecting at Stájerházak (Figure 2.34). On July 10, SÁNDOR PONGRÁCZ, deputy director general of the Hungarian Natural History Museum undertook faunistic collection in the Kőszeg Hills, followed by a team of seven under ADORJÁN KESSELYÁK on September 25-9. Finally, DUDICH returned to Kőszeg on December 17-18 for further collection and discussions on the findings. The collections continued on June 21-9, 1937. Despite bad weather, two three-day collecting trips in the summer of 1936 were extremely productive. The materials were combined, regardless of who had collected them and given labels bearing the legend 'Exc. Inst, system, zool. Univ. Budapest'. Unfortunately, the labels did not include accurate location details, simply reading 'Kőszegi-hegys.' (Kőszeg Hills). However, the collection is known to have taken place in the valleys of the Stayer Brook and Áradó Brook (Gössbach), at Hármashatár, Kendig and írottkő, in the Velem chestnut wood and in the Bozsok meadows. ZOLTÁN KASZAB (1937) commented, 'We mainly collected the species from the pine and beech woods; our collection in the oak region and on the plains is extremely incomplete.' Some of the insects collected went to Kőszeg Museum and can now be found in the Natural History Department of the Savaria Museum in Szombathely. The findings were published in the journal Vasi Szemle (later in the Dunántúli Szemle), as 'communications of Kőszeg Museum (Publicationes Musei Ginsiensis)'. According to reports from the Mátyás Hunyadi Royal Hungarian Educational Institution, the keeper of its natural-history collections was JAKAB BECHTOLD. The yearbook for 1928 records that they included prepared zoological specimens: '296 stuffed animals, 43 skeletons, 220 specimens in 142 For biographical information and a detailed bibliography of his writings in zoology and other fields, see JEANPLONG, J., and P. MRS VÉRTESI 1984. Visnya Aladár, természettudós (AV, naturalist). Vasi Életrajzi Bibliográfiák Vol. 15, 90.