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

Korsós, Z.: History of the Herpetological Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum

"The objects of the main-Department are divided into two groups again: 1) Products of Nature, and 2) Artifical Works. Items belonging to the first group:... e) A not very old Collection, in which the Hungarian four-legged animals, birds, amphibians, fish, insects and vermin are collected... " Unfortunately, written records about what the collection contained at this time could not be recovered. After TEHEL'S death, new curators worked above JÁNY (the keeper of the collections)*, but they didn't pay much attention to the animals (though there were animals among their collections and donations). JÓZSEF JÓNÁS (1787-1821) mineralogist was the curator of the Natural Collections between 1817 and 1821, and JÓZSEF SADLER (1791-1849) botanist between 1821-1822. In these times, the museum mainly increased in the number of rare books and printed texts, including the scientifically significant (and herpetologically interesting) PÁL KITAIBEL'S manuscript collection, which was bought for the museum in 1818 by Palatine JÓZSEF (KUBINYI 1861). PÁL KlTAIBEL (1757-1817) the greatest Hungarian botanist was a great polymath: a travelling explorer who - after his death - has not only left his herbarium to the museum, but also his few thousand collected minerals. But the most valuable parts of his legacy are probably the travel diaries, in which he noted many zoological observations (HORVÁTH 1918, JÁVORKA 1957). Concerning amphibians and reptiles, he was the first in Hungary to describe two well-known species. He gave a detailed description of the Snake-eyed Skink (Ablepharus kitaibelii fitzingeri) in 1797 in Iter baranyense (= Journey to Baranya County) under the name "Lacerta Nitida" (placing its habitat around Buda, Budaörs, Csákvár, and Várpalota); if this was a publication, then the animal would still bear the name of KlTAIBEL. Unfortunately, KITAIBEL'S description, along with many other descriptions, remained in manuscript i.e. in an unpublished form. Later CARL VON SCHREIBERS (1775-1852) of Vienna (TlEDEMANN & GRILLITSCH 1997) set aside two specimens (under the name Scincus pannonicus) of the small lizard which he got from KlTAIBEL. It was only afterwards that LEOPOLD FITZINGER (1802-1884) properly described the species (using the specimens which he got from SADLER after the death of KlTAIBEL) as Ablepharus pannonicus (FlTZINGER 1824, Fig. 1). Finally - after some taxonomical troubles not detailed here (see KORSÓS & HORVÁTH 1992), - ROBERT MERTENS gave it the name Ablepharus kitaibelii fitzingeri in 1952, which is accepted today (MERTENS 1952). As it is seen now, the discovery of the Snake-eyed Skink is a real 'success-story' of Hungarian herpetology and, in addition, it is one of the earliest. KlTAIBEL later mentioned this lizard many times in his diaries (under the name Lacerta nitida, Fig. 2) (in his itineraries: Iter croaticum 1802, Iter arvense 1804: N. Szál = Naszály Hill at Vác,Animalia Hungáriáé: Oct. Lat. 85, see HORVÁTH 1918). The other interesting herp species, the Olm (Proteus anguinus) was already known by KlTAIBEL based on the description by LAURENTI, and so he indicated - in 1802 - that this animal lives in the Velebit mountains (Iter croaticum 1802). Unfortunately, he caught A curator - in the contemporary sense - is the person who organises, labels and scientifically examines the collection, while the keeper of the collection is the one who does all the 'menial' work around the collection (i.e. cleaning, dusting, guarding...).