A Veszprém Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 12. (Veszprém, 1973)

Tóth László: A Bakony hegység Elateridae- (pattanóbogár-) faunájának alapvetése

The collection of the Bakony Natural History Museum, Zirc and the author's private collection gave the basis for this monograph. The nature of this monograph, of course, required an exhaustive survey of the relevant literature, too, such were those written by HOPFFGARTEN (1876), KUTHY (1896), WACHSMANN (1907), LICHTNECKERT, SZÉKESSY (1943), TÓTH (1969). The representatives of the family have been identified wholly by the author, problematic specimens have been compared to the respective species in the RITTER collection housed in the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. From the Bakony Mts., taken in the broad sense, 64 species have come forward so far. This means that one-third of all those found in the Carpathian Basin. The name of the species is followed by the typical area, the characterization of the Bakony biotope on the basis of which the ecological requirements of the species were made possible, the record on the damage caused by the larva complete with living conditions, phenological data, collectors name in abbreviated form, finally, the respective Bakony district is given. The list is followed by a table comprising the typical area designations used by the author; and reference is given as to the numerical distribution of each species in the individual districts in the Bakony Mts. Following this, brief ecological and zoogeographical survey is given. On the basis of THIELE's (1968) grouping four divisions are made primarily on ecological grounds. 1. Stenotropic forest species. In all stages of their ontogenesis they are restricted to woody plants. Stenotropic organisms, mainly psychrophilus, hygrophilous, umbrophilous species. Their area may be of following types: European, Central European, boreomontane. They immigrated into the Bakony Mts. most probably in the Glacial period. Their recent distribution in the investigated area is shown in Fig. 1. 2. Eurytropic forest species. One of their ontogenetic stages is restricted to trees, but their connections with the continuous forest stands is somewhat looser. They may well be found in forest edges or even farther off on the vegetation of the open ground. They are more tolerant to climatic factors, they are eurytopic organisms. Their area is more extensive: Holarctic, Palaearctic, Eurosiberian. They may be found all over the whole area of the Bakony Mts. 3. Stenotropic meadow species. Their ontogenesis is closely connected with open plant associations. They are photophilous, thermophilous, xerophilous species — stenotropic organisms. Their area is Pontusian, Pontomediterranean, Mediterranean in character. They mostly occur at points where the sub-Mediterranean climatic effects prevail best (Fig. 1). 4. Eurytopic meadow species. The larval stage of the species is closely connected with open plant associations, but not exclusively, for they may even be injurious to roots of various species of trees. They have wide limits in tolerating temperature changes, light intensity and moisture — eurytopic organisms. Their area of distribution is very large: Holarctic, Palaearctic, Eurosiberian. (I do not feel justified to list the respective species here, for the Hungarian text makes ample reference to them all.) The Bakony Mountains comprise an independent zoogeographical region of the Transdanubian Central Range (Pilisicum) which is basically supported by the presence of the following species in the area: Corymbites aeneus, C. castaneus, C. cupreus ssp. aeruginosus, Elater erythrogonus, Athous rufus, A. subfascus, A. villosus, Melanotus rufipes. The Appendix gives a short identification key to the difficult Elater species. Finally, in tabulated form the results of the light-trap investigations carried out by the lepidopterologist L. RÉZBANYAI are appended. László Tóth