Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)
9 8 Phylum Arthropoda Ordo Thysanoptera (thrips) GYULA FÁBIÁN began collecting thrips in the Kőszeg Hills in 1935, and his work was continued during the organized collecting trips there. A sizeable quantity of material built up, which FÁBIÁN then processed and published in two studies (FÁBIÁN 1938a and 1939b), along with a summary study of the Kőszeg Hills (FÁBIÁN 1938b). His lists confirm the presence of 69 species in the district. This figure is none too high by comparison with faunistic records from other authors, 18 but it has to be remembered that hardly anything was known about thrips in Hungary, apart from the collections of FERENC PILLICH at Simontornya and of JÓZSEF JABLONOWSKI. The fact that the country's thrips fauna is known only from isolated, local collections precludes drawing any zoogeographical conclusions. However, the few records available show that the thrips fauna of the Kőszeg Hills shows a great similarity to that of the Styrian mountains and Austria than to that of the Central Hungarian Hills. Collections in the Őrség in 1993-4 and 1999 yielded 46 species of thrips (JENSER 2002), of which Anaphothrips graciUimus, Limothrips cerealium, Prosopothrips veidovskyi, Thrips incognitus and Tmetothrips subapterus deserve a special mention. Order Heteroptera (true bugs) There are few records from the West Hungarian border region for the taxa previously grouped under 'Hemiptera'. 19 No summarizing study has yet appeared and the faunistic findings are scattered among shorter publications (HORVÁTH 1896, 1898, 1907 and 1929, whose records are quoted in FÁBIÁN (1939a) and MRS JÁSZAI 1965). This is the case even though GÉZA HORVÁTH, a specialist in the field, visited Kőszeg in 1933 and made collections in company with ALADÁR VISNYA and later gladly identified 'haustellate' insects sent up to Budapest from Kőszeg. VISNYA collected 'aquatic bugs' on their joint trips and later continued to do so, but much of the material was identified by GÉZA HORVÁTH. The enumeration contains 27 species collected in the Kőszeg district (VISNYA 1938). Comparing this with the 28 species for Lake Balaton 20 and the 22 for Fertő (HORVÁTH 1923) makes it clear how rich a water-bug fauna the Kőszeg Hills have. The list includes four species that count as rare: Micronecta minutissima, Notonecta obliqua, Gerris naja and Velia rivulorum. 18 PRIESNER, H. 1928. Verzeichnis der Thysanopteren Ungarns. Annales historico-naturales Musei nationalis hungarici 25:60-68. 19 Although true bugs (Heteroptera), leafhoppers (Auchenorrhyncha) and aphids (Sternorrhyncha), now considered separate orders, are grouped together as 'Hemiptera' in the Fauna Regni Hungáriáé, a division between Hemiptera and Omoptera (syn. Homoptera) had been proposed much earlier (e.g. by LEACH 1817). HANDLIRSCH (1908) divided the disputed taxon into Hemipteroidea —Hemiptera (syn. Heteroptera) and Homoptera. Similarly, several Hungarian-language handbooks apply 'Hemiptera' only to the true bugs. 20 HORVÁTH, G. 1931. A Balaton vízében és víztükrén élő Hemipterák (Aquatic and semi-aquatic Hemiptera of Lake Balaton). A Magyar Biológiai Kutató Intézet Munkái 4:59-63.
