L. Forró szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 8. 1993 (Budapest, 1993)
Merkl, O.: Zoological collectings by the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Africa: a report on the Elgon Expedition, 1992
dae, Coccinellidae, Nitidulidae and Alleculinae, while the number of herbivorous Curculionidae and Chrysomelidae was surprisingly low. Heteropterans and hymenopterans were secured in moderate number, too. Thrips were taken from flowers of various plants. Singling from beneath rotten logs and stones resulted in series of trechine, agonine and scaritine carabids, diplopods, snails, Diplura, Lepismatidea, earwigs etc. Forest litter and moss were sifted and extracted in WinklerMoczarsky funnel; similar samples were taken to be extracted in Berlese funnel. A few earthworms were extracted from soil by formaldehyde. In the cold, running water of the creek we have seen brachyuran crabs. Small, viviparous chameleons (Chamaeleo hoehnelii) were regularly spotted in the shrubs. Of the birds observed, the commonest were Corvus albicollis, Columba arquatrix, Cisticola hunteri, Turdus olivaceus and Zosterops sp. Traces of leopard, buffalo and spotted hyena were seen everywhere. The lamellicorn Trox montanus and a Heteroptera species were collected in plenty from the faeces of leopard. Compared to the lowland areas of Africa, the diversity of the dung beetles of the buffalo pats was found quite low in this altitude (a few Onthophagus , Aphodius, Sphaeridium, staphylinine and oxyteline rove beetles were secured). Plankton sample was taken from a temporal puddle. From the camp, on the westward continuation of the valley of the Kimothon River, some of us visited the rim and the inner part of the caldera and climbed the Koitoboss. However, little zoological work was done there. On the ascent to the caldera, small species of Calosoma were captured from the ground. Large, black weevils Neoteripelus granulipennis (= Seneciobius loveni, see Aurivillius 1926 and Scott 1935) associated with Senecio were also collected. Yellow Colias butterflies, which are frequent in the ericaceous belt, can be seen also in and around the caldera. One-day trips were also directed to the bamboo thicket. March of ten kilometres was necessary to reach the first larger bamboo patch. On the way down we experienced the increasing diversity of the insects; the Gonocephalum tenebrionids appeared soon below the camp together with large philanthine wasps and a number of carabids. The bamboo stand itself was practically devoid of undergrowth to be swept but in the clearings we sampled an insect fauna mixed up from afro-alpine species (e.g. the coccinellid Lioadalia sexareata and mclyrids) and the elements of the lower forests (e.g. lycid beetles, large papilionids). The number of dung beetles found in buffalo pats also increased on the descent to the bamboo. After two weeks, when the dried-out afro-alpine belt and the moss forest seemed to promise no more important new material, the zoologist company moved to the lower zones to carry on collecting in the evergreen montane forest. A new camp was set up in the vicinity of the Chepnyalil Cave, at about 2500 m a. s. 1. Botanists remained in the upper camp to perform microclimatic studies and to complete sampling mosses and lichens. Field-work was made around the campsite in a circle of a radius of 3-4 kilometres extending to the Kitum Cave. The forest occupying the nearby slopes and valleys appeared in its structural heterogeneity described by Hamilton & Perrott (1981). Besides the enormous Podocarpus gracilior and P. milanjianus, the most common trees were Juniperus procera, Olea africana and O. hochstetteri. The undergrowth, though depauperated in the dry season, was dense, especially in shady places and along brooklets; these spots provided the most diverse arthropod fauna. The clearings and tracks were fringed with pricking shrubbery of Acanthus eminens and the non-indigenous Solanum inflatum. Signs of degradation by elephants could be observed everywhere,
