Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 60. (Budapest 1968)

Vojnits, A.: The distribution of the Gnophos-group (Lepidoptera, Geometridae) in Hungary. II

Fig. 1. Gnophos intermedia budensis Kov., from Hungary: 1 = first brood, male, 2 = second brood, female, 3 = first brood, male, 4 = second brood, female The race intermedia budensis Kov., described from the area of the Capital, occurs within our borders proper. The basic colour is white, being yellowish white only in the costal area. The greyish irroration is dispersed, some specimens appear yellowish white (under the binocular microscope, the grey scales appear brownish). The bordering lines of the median field are whole and the postmedian line conspicuous, especially on the males. The vertex is white or greyish white and never grey. Though intermedia budensis Kov. is superficially similar to f. gremmingeri WARN., it is also essentially different: whereas f. gremmingeri WARN, is a form appearing in all populations of the Jura and the Alps, intermedia budensis Kov. is a regionally well circumscribed geographical subspecies. Gnophos yariegata DUP. A Submediterranean species, inhabiting not only the southern parts of Central Europe (PROUT, 1915), but also Western Europe (WEHRLI, 1955). In the East, it was found also in Asia Minor and Syria. In the Alps, it ascends to elevations 1 900 m. a.s.l. Data referring to its occurrence in Slovakia were dismissed already by HRUBY (1964) in want of actually demonstrable specimens. In Hungary, it was collected exclusively in the hills around Buda: the Gellérthegy, the Csiki range, and the Odvashegy (Budaörs). The two broods fly in May—June and from the middle of July to the middle of September, respectively. In the warm spring of 1957, the first generation had already flown by the end of April in the Buda-hills. According to DANNEHL, the species has only a single brood in South Tyrol, whereas WAGNER, SCHWTNGENSCHTJSS, and MILLIÉRE observed three, in April—June, July, and September—October (WEHRLI, 1955). In its home localities, it was collected in fairly large numbers in the Csiki range and especially on the Odvashegy; in this latter site, KOVÁCS captured nearly 200 specimens. These bills consist of dolomite cliffs and rocks, 2 — 300 m. a.s.l., a favourite habitat of also Gnophos intermedia budensis Kov. But while the imagos of Gnojyhos variegata DUP. are to be found during the daylight hours on the cliff-surfaces and the walls of the numerous small cavities and caves, those of Gnophos intermedia budensis Kov. lie concealed below stones in the rocky dolomite slides, from where they can be flushed by disturbing the rocky fragments.