Kovács I. Endre szerk.: Rovartani Közlemények (Folia Entomologica Hungarica 16/22-30. Budapest, 1963)

The Importance of the Investigation of Animal Communities in Hungary By Dr. J. Balogh Zoological Institut of the Loránd Eötvös University, Budapest I have the feeling that it was no pure chance that my lecture on the importance of the investigations of animal communities was left for the closing session of our festive gathering. It seems as if our Committee had implicitly set me the task to have some words - after dealing with the past and the present - on the future,too. Hamely, the majority of Hungarian entomologists, the present lecturer included, are of the mind that the biocoenological /or ecological/ view became, in the last decade, one of the leading ideas of Hungarian entomology.And just as the discussions and friendly talks on ecology in our Society were eminent events of our scientific life, so will the whole concept of animal communities remain, to all appearances,the principal thought of entomological investigations for years to come. Throwing our mind back on the welter of scientific drifts prevailing in Hungary in the recent past,we may safely state that the biocoenological view penetrated to the very roots of entomology. The young generation of entomologists recognized, - without, however, underestimating in the least the importance of the classical branches of our science, to wit, systematica, ethology, etc. - that a coenological view