L. Forró - É. Murai szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 5. 1989 (Budapest, 1989)

Murai, É.; Palotás, G.: In memoriam Dr. Béla Edelényi (1917-1988)

In memóriám Dr. Béla EDELÉNYI (1917-1988) By É. MURAI and 6. PALOTÁS (Received January 12, 1989) ABSTRACT. Commemoration of Professor Béla EDELÉNYI (Department of Zoology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Debrecen, retired in 19P01, parasitologist (internal parasites of vertebrates, mainly fishes, amphibians and reptiles^. The list of his publications is given. KEY WORDS: Obituary, biography, scientific activity Dr. Béla EDELÉNYI was born in Sopronlövő, Western Hungary on 1 June 1917. His father was a State Railways official. After his secondary school studies in Sopron, he graduated as a teacher of biology and geography at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Szeged University in 1940. He started his teaching and research activity at the Institute of Systematic Zoology as an unpaied assistant between 1941 and 1943. In 1943 he got his doctor's degree for a study on internal parasitic worms of the frogs of the Szeged region. The Second World War caused serious troubles in his life: he served in the army both in 1942-43, while he was prepairing his doctoral theses and for his examination, and from 1944; then he became the prisoner of war, he escaped in 1945. After the Second World War he worked as a secondary school teacher in Debrecen (Dóczi Lajos Reformational Boarding School for girls^ then in Jászberény (State Teachers' Training-School, then at the grammarschool) . From 1961 to 1963 he worked at the Department of Zoology, Teachers' Training-College, in Eger as an assistant lecturer. In 1963 he got a job at the Department of Zoology, University (before 1974 College) of Agricultural Sciences, Debrecen, as a lecturer, later he became the head of this department, where he worked until his retirement in 1980. He taught biology, geography, chemistry and agriculture at secondary schools, and general zoology and systematics in higher education. His students respected him for his clear lectures. He contributed to organizing the Department of Zoology at the College of Agricultural Sciences and working out the programme of education. He was a coauthor of the lecture-notes entitled "Physical Geography of Hungary". He gave several lectures to the general public. He was one of the few biologists in Hungary, who dealt with the systematics and distribution of the parasitic worms of fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and in some papers of mammals. His dissertation for a candidate's degree was entitled "Parasitic worms of the fishes of the river Tisza, and their dynamic invasion", and was defended in 1970. He published 2 volumes in the series "Fauna Hungáriáé" (1. Trematodes II. - Digenea; 2. Cestoidea I.V. For his work he collected a lot of fish, and nowadays protected birds from the saltmarshes of Hortobágy and Tiszántúl. The parasites of these specimens were the basis for the original descriptions and figures published in Fauna Hungáriáé. He described several flukes from birds and other worms in his other publications. Most of his material is still to be worked on, and is deposited at the Zoological Department of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, where it is under continous work.