Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)
130 Phylum Arthropode! Basin: Formicoxenus nitidulus, Leptothorax gredleri and Tetramorium impurum. Gall-inducing insects Galls are induced, while feeding, by animal organisms from a wide range of taxa, including gall-inducing wasps, gall midges, gall flies, adelgins, gall-inducing aphids, eriophyd mites and gall mites. These can often be identified by the gall they induce. Galls and gallinducing organisms form the subject of a large body of Hungarian entomological literature. Earlier researchers mainly examined the inducers of galls of agricultural importance (DIETZ 1882). Interest later extended to the whole fauna (MOESZ 1938). Combined data additional to the work of GUSZTÁV MOESZ (1938) were published by GÉZA BÁLÁS (1941). The present author possesses a copy of this with additional manuscript notes and many unpublished data, written by BÁLÁS on the blank pages of the bound book. Records from the West Hungarian border region are also found in his earlier publications (BÁLÁS 1938 and 1940). Interestingly, some galls are included in the Vas County flora of VINCE BORBÁS (1887). JÁNOS GYŐRFI worked on the gall-inducing wasps of Sopron and vicinity (GYŐRFI 1957). BÉLA AMBRUS did faunistic researches on galls in the West Hungarian border region up until his death in 1978. He worked on the gall fauna of the Kőszeg Hills (AMBRUS 1961b), the Vendvidék (AMBRUS 1963) and the Vas County arboreta (AMBRUS 1960 and 1980), and reported on the gall fauna of the region in several other writings (AMBRUS 1958, 1964 and 1969). The comprehensive account of the Hungarian gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae —SKUHRAVÁ and SKUHRAVY 1999) includes AMBRUS'S data on cases of gall induction by these. GEORGE MELIKA (1995) collected galls induced by wasps of the Cynipidae family on oaks (Quercus spp.) and roses (Rosa spp.), and conversely, gall wasps in the Őrség district based on the galls. He succeeded in demonstrating the presence of 41 species. Collections that GEORGE MELIKA made in the Kőszeg Hills provided numerous specimens from which he established that Andricus magretti is synonymous with A. seckendorffi (MELIKA 1999). Another article (MELIKA and BECHTOLD 2001) presents collection data from the vicinity of Kőszeg (Felső and Alsó woods), where 66 oak gall-inducing cynipids could be demonstrated. Lists of parasitoids reared from galls of Andricus aestivalis, A. grossulariae, A. multiplicatus and A. vindobonensis were given in a paper by GEORGE MELIKA and colleagues (MELIKA et al 2002). These are the most complete records of the parasitoid assemblages of these four cynipids. Several data on the lists are from Western Hungary. GYULA MÉHES collected gall-inducing wasps between 1917 and 1961 at several locations in Hungary, including Szombathely, Vasvár and Kőszeg (Kendig). His collection was processed by GEORGE MELIKA and MÁRIA BECHTOLD (MELIKA and BECHTOLD 1999). GYÖRGY CSÓKA collected throughout the country in 1989-93, compiling distribution and food-plant records for 68 gall-wasp species (CSÓKA 1994a). In an article on a question of nomenclature and taxonomy, GEORGE MELIKA
