Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)

Phylum Arthropoda 133 caddis fauna of anywhere in Hungary (UHERKOVICH and NÓGRÁDI 1992b) in terms of its species count. To give two comparative data: 84 species were caught at Szőce and 53 in the Chernél Garden in Kőszeg. Two of the species caught at Magyarszombatfa, Oecetis testacea and Setodes viridis have been found at only a few localities in the country (SCHMERA 2000; NÓGRÁDI 2001). For three others, this was only the second locality in Hungary. Unfortunately, the collection data of the last few years show that the caddis fauna is being rapidly impoverished, here and elsewhere in Hungary. The main cause is the decline in precipitation, which has lowered the level of streams and many stretches of standing water and allowed marshes to dry out. Of the marsh species, Limnephilus elegáns may even have become extinct, while Oligotricha striata is in mortal danger. A secondary cause is increasing pollution and regulation of streams. It was discernible at Magyarszombatfa that the number of species and specimens caught in the years after the regulation of the stream there had fallen. Regulation of streams has unfortunately impoverished the fauna throughout the country, pushing to the brink of extinction several other species besides the two mentioned. Trichoptera data from the Őrség appear here and there in later articles as well. An assessment of the caddis fauna of the Zselic also contains records of certain species from the region (NÓGRÁDI and UHERKOVICH 1990). Further species have joined the caddis fauna of Hungary in recent years, some first collected in the West Hungarian border region (localities in parentheses): Stactobiella risi (Tanakajd), Ptilocolepus granulatus and Apatania muliebris (Kám: Jeli Arboretum). It was fortunate to find specimens of the endangered Setodes viridis reappearing at Alsószölnök and Apátistvánfalva (NÓGRÁDI 1994). The standard account of caddis flies in the Balaton catchment area includes earlier Őrség occurrences and some new, unpublished localities (NÓGRÁDI and UHERKOVICH 1994). The first Trichoptera checklist for Hungary contained 196 species and likewise included all West Hungarian border-region data (UHERKOVICH and NÓGRÁDI 1992a). To conclude their contribution to the Natural History of the Őrség programme, NÓGRÁDI and UHERKOVICH (1995a) summarized our knowledge of the caddis fauna of the district. The earlier lack of research could hardly be demonstrated more clearly than by the fact that there were no Őrség specimens at all in the Trichoptera collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum.

48 Examination of the caddis flies in the Őrség did not really begin until the second half of the 1970s. SÁNDOR ÚJHELYI included Őrség occurrences of 46 species in the article mentioned earlier (ÚJHELYI 1981a), the record of Platyphylax frauenfeldi attracting strong interest at the time. Some Őrség data appeared also in his accounts of the Rhyacophila and Hydropsyche species in Hungary (ÚJHELYI 1981b and 1982). The occurrence of Platyphylax frauenfeldi was soon mentioned in another article as well (ÚJHELYI 1981C). 48 NÓGRÁDI, S. 1989. Locality data of the Trichoptera collection originating from the Carpathian Basin in the Hungarian Natural History Museum. Folia entomologica hungarica 50:147-56.