Nagy Ferenc: Vas megye nagylepkéi (Szombathely, 2014)
The Macrolepidoptera of Vas County
THE MACROLEPIDOPTERA OF VAS COUNTY The location of Vas County, on Hungary’s western edge at the foot of the Eastern Alps, makes its landscape unique in the country. The Alpine influence is strongest on the weather, notably the quantity of precipitation and its distribution: annual rainfall equivalent exceeds 800 mm throughout the county, with over 900 mm recorded at some sites and a declining tendency from West to East. Air temperature differences from other parts of the country is less marked, but its annual variance is less than elsewhere, with milder winters and somewhat cooler summers. The county also differs strongly from other parts in its sub-Alpine wildlife. Specialist interest has long been shown in the special features of the region. Substantial information about species occurrence in the various districts of Vas County built up over decades of research into its fauna and flora. The Savaria Museum in Szombathely took a big step in 1976 to increasing knowledge of natural conditions in less studied districts with a research programme entitled “The Natural History of Preanoricum”. This was followed in 1993 by “The Natural History Őrség”. The one overall communication on Macrolepidoptera of Vas County came from Ákos Uherkovich in 1980, covering 892 such species. Much further information on Vas County Macrolepidoptera built up over the following three decades. This study sets out to present the faunistic results and data on the fullest possible scale. In the chapter “The areas examined and previous research history” the author gives an area-by-area account of the research history and latest findings on the Macrolepidoptera fauna. It includes for each district a list of the species typical of it, or which count as new species in the light of present findings. The data in faunistic publications and more recent collections provide an occurrence total of 1007 species of Macrolepidoptera for Vas County, i. e. 78.9 per cent of all the 1274 species found in Hungary. This publication includes 14 species which have not been recorded in Vas County before: Daphnis nerii, Hyles gallii, Asphalia ruficollis, Archiearis notha, Thera britannica, Eupithecia extraversaria, Catocala hymenaea, Eutelia adulatrix, Diachrysia stenochrysis, Omphalophana antirrhinii, Bryophila felina, Mesapamea secalella, Hadena capsincola, Argynnis pandora. In addition a large number of rare species have also occurred: Eriogaster catax, Endromis versicolora, Daphnis nerii, Saturnia spini, Jodis putata, Entephira caesiata, Spargania luctuata, Larentia clavaria, Thera britannica, Rheumaptera undulata, Gagitodes sagittata, Eupithecia denticulata, Chesias rufata, Discoloxia blomeri, Hydrelia sylvata, Pachycnemia hippocastanaria, Ennomos quercaria, Tephronia sepiaria, Elophos serotinaria, Perconia strigillaria, Odontosia carmelita, Calliteara abietis, Pericallia matronula, Autographa buraetica, Cucullia gnaphalii, Hyppa rectilinea, Crypsedra gemmea, Apamea syriaca tallosi, Anarta myrtilli, Lasionyctaproxima, Actebia fugax, Ochropleura leucogaster, Colias myrmidone, Leptidea morsei major, Pieris bryoniae, Lycaena hippothoe, Cupido alcetas, Cupido decolorata, Maculinea alcon alcon, M. árion ligurica, Maculinea nausithous, Polyommatus amandus, Limenitis populi, Brenthis ino, Apatura iris, Euphydryas aurinia, Lopinga achine, Hyponephele lycaon, Erebia medusa, E. aethiops. In some cases the author provides a short description of these. The study provides data on all the previously found Macrolepidoptera species and those covered in the faunistic literature, along with the unexamined and unpublished specimens in the Savaria Museum’s Macrolepidoptera collection, and the specimens collected in Vas County by the Szombathely amateur lepidopterists Ferenc Nagy and Zsolt Baranyai. Ferenc Nagy’s voucher specimens can be found not only at the Savaria in Szombathely, but at the Natur Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland, and at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest. The Savaria Museum also obtained part of the collection of Zsolt Baranyai. In terms of system and species nomenclature the study follows Magyarország nagylepkéi (Macrolepidoptera of Hungary; Gyulai et al. 2010). Leraut (1980) was used for identifying species names in data taken from other publications. After the full species name and description come the citations in the literature in order of author, year of publication and number of pages. The literary citation is followed by a number in brackets. The next paragraph has the occurrence data found in the literature; the number in square brackets refers to the citation as above. 352
