Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 100. (Budapest 2008)

Bálint, Zs.: Lepidoptera collections of historical importance in the Hungarian Natural History Museum

History - The collection was purchased with an extensive catalogue (19 March 1864), which testifies that "Lepidoptera europaea" contained 11,371 specimens of 3,189 species and there were further 588 specimens of 366 species in the collection "Lepidoptera exotica" (FRIVALDSZKY 1864). The fate of the FRIVALDSZKY collection was that at the time of its purchase it was more than two times larger than the Lepidoptera collection of the museum itself (Table 1). Hence the FRIVALDSZKY collection became the basis of the general collection and new material became incorporated to the collection (and most probably also the OCHSENHEIMER specimens secured after the flood). Because of this many specimens were lost or exchanged as the records of 159,165 and 254/1866 in the central archive of the HNHM tells (copies in the archive of the HNHM Lepidoptera collection), that director JÓZSEF PÉTERFFY took 538 specimens of 357 species as a present to the agricultural high school Georgikon in Keszthely, which included 23 specimens of 17 species represented by OCHSENHEIMER material (the list of species was presented) plus some FRIVALDSZKY specimens (not detailed). Table 1. Comparison of the size of the Hungarian National Museum (HNM) public and FRIVALDSZKY'S private (FC) Lepidoptera collections. Sources: "A rovarokból összeállított gyűjtemények kimutatása 1872. Martius végéig" (HNM); "Manuscript catalogues of Lepidoptera europaea" and "Lepidoptera exotica" (FC) HNM material Hungarian Lepidoptera 2,260 specimens of 862 species Lepidoptera generalia 2,306 specimens of 783 species All together 4,566 specimens of 1,645 species FC material Lepidoptera europaea 11,371 specimens of 3,189 species Lepidoptera exotica 588 specimens of 366 species All together 11,959 specimens of 3,555 species The original contractors and drawers of the FRIVALDSZKY collection were made exactly in the same manner as we saw in the case of TREITSCHKE collection. Because of the constant growth of the Lepidoptera collection (FRIVALDSZKY 1880), the old styled drawers became unsafe and inconvenient for modern museological standards, hence they were given away. New drawers and cabinets was employed, and the whole collection was reorganized by the museum staff. In the early 1950s LAJOS KOVÁCS started to scan the whole Lepidoptera collection and tried to locate FRIVALDSZKY specimens. He copied the numerical numbers, the species names and the number of specimens from the manuscript catalogue of FRIVALDSZKY ( 1864) and produced an extensive handwritten secondary catalogue, which is in the archive