Az Alpokalja természeti képe közlemények 5. (Praenorica - Folia historico-naturalia. Szombathely, 2002)

VÍG, К.: Leaf beetle collection of Attila Podlussány (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) expresses a recognition now accepted worldwide that up-to-date knowledge of and research into the constituents of the local ecosystem is indispensable to the research arsenal of environmental studies. How can this be achieved? There has to be a taxonomic survey made by classical and molecular-biological methods of the animal, plant and fungal species living in natural and cultivated areas. There has to be mapping of flora and fauna, as well as processing and development of living and conserved collections, and more intensive ecological researches to assist in the preservation and survival of protected and endangered species (JERMY et al. 1998). Thanks to the activity of the specialists resident in the Carpathian Basin and dealing with research into the ecosystem, we can be rightly proud of our achievements by comparison with other countries in Europe. A brief account of how knowledge has been gained of the ecosysteri of the Carpathian Basin, notably its animal life, will allow the Hungarian successes in this field to speak for themselves. Organized research into the fauna of this country began in the second half of the 19

th century. At the end of that century, the findings of that research were summarized in vast publication of studies, unprecedented in its time. 'Fauna Regni Hungáriáé'' which covers knowledge of Animal Kingdom in the whole territory of the Carpathian Basin, appeared in several parts. For many decades, it remained a decisive starting-point for any faunistic activity. The alteration in Hungary's territory after the First World War and increasing taxonomic-systematic knowledge necessarily led to further large-scale faunistic exploration covering the whole country. In the 1950s, there began a research programme whose findings are still being published in a continuing series of pamphlets. The authors of the 'Fauna Hungáriáé'' series each present a single taxon of Hungary's fauna, appending a key to aid identification. The third stage in research into Hungarian fauna came with exploration of the areas under nature protection. Staff of the Hungarian Natural History Museum dealt primarily with the fauna and flora of the national parks, while staff of provincial museums researched into the ecosystem of their districts in a broader sense. Alongside the scientific material gathered during this recent programme of collection, most of which was sent to the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest, there is faunistic material of inestimable value held at provincial museums (and in some private collections). Such materials began to expand rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, as a newly graduated generation of natural scientists and museum staff set to work with enthusiasm. These collections took place in a Hungary that was still 'untouched' to a greater extent than today, so that many of the habitats examined have since been destroyed, or at least been strongly degraded. The material collected provides a picture of the individual territories at that time and of the vegetation covering them. Processing the material in the collections and comparing it with present-day data allows the changes in the flora and fauna of certain territories to be traced over short intervals. Assessment of the data has concurrently provided some basis on which to trace the conditions under which certain species spread and became abundant. It is not fortuitous that processing of the collections held in provincial museums should be prominent in the strategic research programme instituted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (JERMY et al. 1998). 6