Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)
80 Phylum Arthropoda TÁR and GÁBOR TAKÁCS (TAKÁCS 1998). About 94 species from the Hidegvíz Valley in the Sopron Hills were listed in a master's thesis (KONDOR 1991). TAMÁS SZŰTS and colleagues (SZŰTS et al. 1999) compared and listed the spider fauna of several small habitats in Szárhalom Wood. IMRE LOKSA and colleagues carried out intensive pitfall trapping in the 1980s, but his untimely death prevented publication of the results. However, some of his collection material has undergone identification and publication more recently (SZITA et al. 2002). Investigations in the Fertő-Hanság National Park territory in 1996-2001 yielded occurrence reports of 180 spider species, of which five (Cnephalocotes obscurus, Gongylidiellum vivum, Larinia bonetti, Zora armillata and Synageles lepidus) proved new to the Hungarian fauna (SZITA et al. 2002). Both L. bonetti and L. elegáns were recently captured there. The species were described by S. SPASSKY in Central Asia in 1939, but neither had been known in Central Europe for a long time. Based on their distribution data, it is justified to assume that Fertő is their westernmost occurrence, as is the case with much flora and fauna of the saline ponds and salt marshes of Central Asia. The Austrian side of Fertő has been well explored and several faunistic studies written (FRANZ 1931; NEMENZ 1956, 1958 and 1959; MALICKY 1972; JÄGER 1995; ZULKA and MILASOWSZKY 1998). The spiders of the reeds there concerned P. KYSELA (1992). The Austrian side includes the westernmost edge of the range of the Russian tarantula (Lycosa singoriensis), and detailed conservation-biology studies of the population have been made to promote its survival (FESTETICS and GUGLIA 1969; MILASOWSZKY and ZULKA 1996 and 1998). As a by-product of Lepidoptera research near Sopron, the garden spider Meta segmentata was found to be a predator on the winter moth (Operophtera brumata —AMBRUS and CSÓKA 1989). ALFONZ FREH (1878) mentioned two species from the vicinity of Kőszeg, but they were omitted by JÁNOS BALOGH (1938a) from his enumeration. ADOLF KUNCZ (1880) listed six spider species from Szombathely. Similar records occur in the chapter on spiders in Fauna Regni Hungáriáé (CHYZER and KULCZYNSKI 1896). GÁBOR KOLOSVÁRY (193 6b) also mentioned a species occurring in Kőszeg. The data all show that spiders have hardly been collected in the Kőszeg district or elsewhere in the West Hungarian border region. Thorough research into the spider fauna is called for. The material gathered in 1936-7 and the spiders collected by ALADÁR VISNYA were identified by JÁNOS BALOGH (1938a) and 215 species shown to occur in the Kőszeg Hills. Of course species rare or unknown in the national fauna may also appear from collections in relatively unknown territory. In this case, one species new to the Hungarian fauna (Oedothorax gibbosus) and several curiosities (Atypus piceus and Theridion suaveolens) emerged. The collection work in the Kőszeg Hills was continued after 1937 by ALADÁR VISNYA, whose specimens were processed and published by GÁBOR KOLOSVÁRY (1943). Knowledge of the spider fauna of the Carpathian Basin was summed up by JÁNOS BALOGH and IMRE LOKSA (1947). Several records from West Hungarian border region can be found.
