S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 56. (Budapest, 1995)

Report on a collecting trip to Vietnam in 1993* A. Bankovics and G. Csorba Report on a collecting trip to Vietnam in 1993 - A preliminary report and an annotated list of collecting localities of the expedition. According to the scientific agreement between the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the National Center for Scientific Research of Vietnam we could realize our second expedition to Vietnam in the autumn of 1993. This time we spent 34 days in North Vietnam from 5th of November to 8th of December. Thanks to the escorts and the scientist of the NCSR most of our time was spent in the field. During the 34 days we collected in four different areas: 1. Hanoi (the suburb area of the capital) 2. Ba Vi National Park (Ha Tay Province) 3. Sa Pa (Lao Cai Province) 4. Quang Chu (Bac Thai Province) 1. While in Hanoi we stayed in the "Galilei Guesthouse" of NCSR. The guesthouse is in the suburb of Hanoi, surrounded by small lakes like Ho Van Phuc near the Zoo, offering a fair chance for collecting. Between the 5-8 of November and 11-14 of December we used mist-nets around the lakes. 2. We visited the Ba Vi National Park on a 3-day trip between 8-10 of November. The small remnant of a mountain rainforest is some 40 km soutwest of Hanoi. At the border of the primary subtropical forest in the zone 400-600 m a.s.l., we caught birds and bats by mist-nets. 3. On 14th of November we travelled by train to Lao Cai, and by rented car to Sa Pa. The small town lies at about 1300 a.s.l., and it is a traditional excursion center and place for recreation. Unfortunately, owing to the timber and firewood collecting by the local people, within five hours of walking no forest was left. Around Sa Pa we trapped small mammals, mist-netted birds and visited several caves where bats were captured. Insects were also collected by light-traps. 4. We worked at Quang Chu between 27th of November an 6th of December. The surroundings of Quang Chu is a low-mountain area originally covered by deciduous primary forest. Now in large parts of it only dense secondary shrubs and cultivated fields are found. The less disturbed primary forest, mentioned by Matskási et al. (1989), is now partly also deforested and the deforestation slowly but continuously proceeds further endangering the mountain rainforest, even on the steep, rocky mountain slopes. Water buffaloes carrying timber speed up soil erosion. The stream which was permanent and * Hungarian zoological studies in Vietnam. No. 20.