O. Merkl szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 69. (Budapest, 2008)

While collecting Thysanoptera species living on Juniperus communis in Hungary we have observed differences in the vertical distribution of these species. We have investigated the occurrence of these species on two occasions (4.1 V. 1994 and 12.1 V.

2007) on the plateau of the Bükk Mountains (Szilvásvárad: Olaszkapu) at 859 m a.s.l. and at the foothills at 360 m a.s.l. (Bélapátfalva). T. juniperinus specimens were found exclusively on the plateau in the beech zone, where Carpathian elements of insects, e.g. Abax schueppeli PALLIARDI, 1825 (Coleoptera, Carabidae) also occur (SZÉL 1996). At the same time only A. niezabitowskii occurred at the foothills in the oak zone. In several places of low altitude of Hungary A. niezabitowskii was found in high number, e.g. in Buda Hills, in the Balaton Upland and in the Danube-Tisza Interfluve. Microhabitat of Iridothrips iridis Iridothrips iridis (WATSON, 1924) lives hiding in the sheath of the upper leaves of Iris pseudacorus. This plant grows in boggy ground where the water level is variable. The sheath of the upper leaves is time to time becomes submerged. I had the opportunity to follow the dynamics of the population of /. iridis in a bog in the Balaton Upland, at Vászoly. In spite of the fact that in this bog the sheath of upper leaves of the Iris pseudacorus were submerged in the summer of 2006, the population of /. iridis did not collapse. The space enclosed by the leaves is filled with a viscous liquid in which the larvae and adults are able to survive, and this viscous liquid prevents penetration of the water, or when the water level is low, it prevents drying out of this space. This way, a permanent microhabitat is provided for the population, independently from the change of the water level. A few specimens occur in the sheath of the flower, but only when the viscous liquid is present there. In autumn, following the withering of the leaves, the sprout of the new leaves, and the sheath of those can provide the same microhabitat, where the females could overwinter. Occurrence of Oxythrips bicolor in a juniper stand Oxytbrips bicolor (O. M. REUTER, 1895) can be collected in spring from both herbaceous and woody plants, mainly from Pinus sylvestris, Larix decidua and Juniperus communis (PRIESNER 1928, KNECHTEL 1951, ZUR STRASSEN 2003). In Hungary it was recorded only in the Kőszeg area (FÁBIÁN 1938). I have collected eleven females and ten males on 21.IV.1996, and three females and two males on 7.V.1996 from flowering male cones of Pinus sylvestris at Dömös. In a Juniperus communis stand at Bugac (Danube-Tisza Interfluve) 14 females and one male were captured by window traps between 2 and 7.V. and one female between 14 and 20.V. in 2003.