O. G. Dely szerk.: Vertebrata Hungarica 8/1-2. (Budapest, 1966)
Marián, M.: The herpetofauna of the Fehértó (Lake Fehér) near Kardoskut, Hungary 93-104. o.
hood, environmental conditions and concurrently also the possibilities of animal life are also liable to extreme changes within a relatively short space of time. The alkali „lake" or marsh turns, within the lapse of a single season, into a dusty, alkali, semi-desert. This also effects the evolvement of the number of amphibian and reptile species. Let us first examine the species living in the several habitats. In delimiting the main biotopes,I follow the plant associations as defined by GY. BODROGKÖZI (1966). In the open water, reptiles and amphibians occur only transitionally. In the alkali marsh ( Bolboschoenetum chenopodium botryoide s ), the representatives of the two animal classes occur in the greatest numbers, especially in the spring and the beginning of summer, when the majority of the amphibians congregate for the laying of the eggs. Of the Urodela, the great water newt ( Triturus c. cristatu s LAUR.) was found to occur until the middle of summer in the alkali marsh. Subsequent to the evaporation of the water, the animal retreats into the mud of the bottom of the lake or t>.e cracks of the coast. The far-sounding mating voice of the green toad ( Bufo v. viridi s LAUR. ) can be heard already in the first days of April. At the middle of May, its larvae swarm by the thousands in the coastal zone. The 1'ew inches or less of water warms up easily, and the algal crust covering the dense aquatic vegetation offers ample food for the tadpoles. Their development and transformation proceed at the normal pace. At the beginning of July, the young, lunged forms jump around by the hundreds on the already waterless but still wet and muddy bottom of the marsh and the reedy patches. By the middle of summer,they leave the desiccated area and withdraw to the vicinity of the homesteads and the cultivated fields. This culturefollowing species tides over,by the very help of
