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

Phylum Arthropoda 79 The first collections in the region were probably the ones made in 1936-7 by staff of the Zoosystematics Department of the Péter Pázmány University of Sciences in Budapest in the Kőszeg Hills. The most attention was paid during the collections to soil-dwelling oribatid mites (Oribatida). JÁNOS BALOGH (193 7, 1938b, 1938c, 1938d, 1938e, 1938f and 1939) used the material to prepare a compendium of the oribatid fauna of the hills. Disregarding the taxonomic changes, the summarizing publication of 1939 presented 130 species from Kőszeg, of which 52 were new to the Hungarian fauna and two (Belba visnyai

4 and Liacarus koeszegiensis) proved to be new to science. All the Kőszeg occurrences can be found in the same author's monograph on oribatid mites (BALOGH 1943). See also the paper by MAHUNKA and MAHUNKA-PAPP (2000). So far, 148 Oribatida species have been collected in the Fertő-Hanság National Park. Three (Sellnickochthonius hanyensis, Moritzoppia problematica and Opiella editae) were new to science and nine (Hoplophthiracurus illionensis, Phthiracurus crenophilus, Dorycranosus acutus, Ramusella furcata, Quadroppia monstruosa, Suctobelba sorrentensis, S. perforata, Liebstandia pannonica and L. willmanni) new to the Hungarian fauna (MAHUNKA and MAHUNKA-PAPP 2002). The catalogue of freshwater mites (Hydrachnidae) of the Carpathian Basin reveals a surprising number of species from Lake Fertő and the Sopron and Sárvár districts (SZALAY 1942c). A new Uropodina species, Uropodina sopronensis, was described in 1990 from material collected near Sopron (WisNiEWSKi and HIRSCHMANN 1990). Seventeen Uropodina species have been identified from material collected in the FertőHanság National Park. Two (Trichouropoda ovális and T. querceti) are very frequent, some are common, but most are very rare in Hungary, with only one or two locality records. T. polyctenaphyla proved to be new to the Hungarian fauna. This species is commensal with Formica polyctena ants (KONTSCHÁN 2002b). Subclass Araneae (spiders) The first records of the spider fauna in the West Hungarian border region appeared in the inimitable three-volume work of OTTÓ HERMAN (1876-9), who included altogether six records from Kőszeg and others from Sopron and near Fertő. A monograph by WLADYSLAW KULCZYNSKI and KORNÉL CHYZER (1891-7) lists 30, mainly common species from the region, probably collected by JÁNOS PAVEL. CHYZER (1892) described a new variety from by Fertő, as Tetragnatha extensa var. pulchra, from a specimen collected by JÓZSEF JABLONOWSKI. There is a Fertő record in another study by KULCZYNSKI (1895). Later, GÁBOR KOLOSVÁRY (1925 and 1948) gave an occurrence by Fertő in his account of the Hungarian distribution of the Russian tarantula (Lycosa singoriensis). The modest number of publications reflects that there were no comprehensive arachnological researches on the Hungarian side of Fertő until very recently. The orb-weavers (Tetragnathidae) of the reed belt, especially the shoreline, have also been studied by CSABA SZINE4 The present valid name is Hungarobelba visnyai.