Boros István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 8. (Budapest 1957)

Boros, I.: The tragedy of the Hungarian Natural History Museum

ons, turned to cinder and ashes, the same as every other room which fell before the oncoming flames. The above orders of insects were completely annihilated, a material of more than 60 000 specimens of high value. Only the foreign material of the Odonate escaped which, together with some 3 000 unidentified home and foreign Orthopterans, was fortunately left in the intact room of the departmental library. The main material of the home collection originates, among others, from the collectings of J. Pável, J. and I. Frivaldszky, K. Chyzer, 0. Herman, G. Horváth, S. Mocsár y, S. Pongrácz, S. Újhelyi and K. B r a n c s i k. Foreign and exotic material was presented or given to the Museum from almost every corner of the globe byL. Doleschall (Java, Amboina), K. Nendtwich (North America), J. Zichy (Turkestan), B. Széchenyi (Inner Asia), T. D u k a (India), F. Hopp (Seychelles), K. Sarkady (Brasil), I. Verebélyi (Mexico), J. Xántus (Sunda, the Far East), S. F e n i c h e 1 and L. Bíró (New Guinea, Australia), E. Csiki (Caucasus, Siberia, Mongolia, China). With the Collection irretrievable specimens were lost too, hundreds of types described partly by Hungarian, partly by famous foreign specialists. The destruction of the Brancsik type material is an especially grave loss. The Hemiptera — Homoptera Colledction suffered damages partly by fire partly by water. The losses have as yet not been possible to ascertain but it is fairly sure that injuries were suffered by about 40—50 000 specimens. Of these, 10—15 000 specimens were wholly destructed, the others may be qualified as severely damaged (losses of heads, legs, abdomens, wings). About 80 per cent of the damages fell on the bug, and 20 per cent on the cicade collections. Unfortunately, the heaviest losses were suffered by the main Hungarian collection of G. Horváth a material of world fame. Here, too, the highest amount of types were demolished, of which more than the half was described by G. Ho rv á t h. The number of perished types may be around 200—300 specimens. Of the departmental library, some 1 000 reprints are as good as useless. In the Coleopterological Collection housed on the first floor of the Museum building on the Baross Street, not fire but extinguishing water bursting down from the second floor caused severe damages. It seeped into several boxes stored outside of cabinets and also into some boxes within one or two cabinets, it loosened specimens glued onto the labels, and, by washing off label inscriptions, it made useless a significant amount of material. Luckily, the majority of the destroyed material came from our home fauna and is therefore easily replaced. The two Curculionide boxes of the famous R e i 11 e r collection are, however, an irreplaceable loss, containing Ceiithorrhynchini material. Numerous types were demolished in this highly valuable material, a situation the more grave as the majority of the Ceiithorrhynchini material of the R e i 11 e r collection had burned down in Berlin, during its siege in 1945. The Lepidopterological Collection, housed on the third floor of the Museum Building in the Baross Street, was miraculously saved. The fire devoured everything around it, yet the Collection, by fortuitous circumstances, escaped, though not without some significant losses. The flames destroyed about one halfth (400 specimens) of the cultur-historically very valuable T. K o y collection, which was brought together in the beginning of the XIX. century. However, water used during the extinguishing operations, sweeping in through the broken windows, injured not a few boxes and lots of lepidopterons,