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

Kovács, L.: Data to the knowledge of Hungarian Macrolepidoptera III. New taxa from the subfamily Hadeninae

Data to the Knowledge of Hungarian Maerolepidoptera III. New Taxa from the Subfamily Hadeninae By L. KOVÁCS, Budapest The extremely profuse material worked up from the collections of the light-trap network in Hungary results in data multiplely exceeding all previous information, even in an international frame of reference, on our home Maerolepidoptera. Of these collections, we have recorded since 1961 the data of more than one and a half million specimens, in their majority referring to about 750 species. There is hardly any among them whose faunistical, phenological, ecological, or eventually systematical, problems were not further clarified by their help, and at the same time subserving as a safe basis to delineate a fundamental approach to the still obscure quantitative conditions of macrolepidopterous species. The interest of future researches would indisputably require that this unique mass of data be published as soon as possible, but, for the time being, grave difficulties stand in the way. Publication facilities decrease year by year, aggravating the selection as to priority of the problem to be discussed. In this situation, I have selected species characteristic for our fauna, species of which we have abundant data available to round out incomplete information and to eliminate eventually false notions. This would render inestimable help to research workers, as well as to editors of comprehensive lepidopterological works. 1. The Hyssia-genus, with the description of a new species and a new subspecies The species Hyssia cavernosa Ev., was introduced by E. EVERSMAN, former professor of the University of Kazan, in 1842. The specimens serving for the original description derived from the southwestern foothills of the Ural range (Government of Orenburg), and partly from the environment of Kazan. According to literature, the area of H. cavernosa s. lat. consists of three distinct regions. The first is the southern part of Central Europe (North Italy, Switzerland, Vorarlberg, Lower Austria, Hungary, South and East Slovakia, East Rumania, Poland; the second stretches from Kazan and the southern foothills of the Ural to Turkestan; the third comprises the territory between the Altai Range and the Amur area. From the Alps, only a few localities, rather removed from one another, are cited. From CentralEurope most localities are reported from the Carpathian Basin; east of the environs of Vienna, and south of the Pozsonyszentgyörgy (Sväty Jur) — Aranyosmarót (Zlate Moravce) — Kassa (Kosice) line, respectively the upper reaches of the river Tisza. From Poland Cracow is the only known locality. A number of localities are cited from the southern parts of the Soviet Union, Turkestan, the Amur area, and, following the largescale collections of Or. Z. KASZAB, from Mongolia. Systematical considerations. The study of the material available resulted in the striking discovery that the name Hyssia cavernosa E VERSMANN covers three distinct forms in literature (Fig. 1). Of these, the nominate form and the Mongolian form