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

Phylum Arthropoda 139 garian side of the Kőszeg Hills. This provided a reliable basis also for quantitative examinations and records of some rare species. The results of his collections began to appear in 1974 (RÉZBÁNYAI 1974 and 1976). He showed the occurrence of 732 macrolepidopterous species, of which 239 were new to the Kőszeg Hills and four (Hyppa rectilinea, Hydrelia testaceata, Eupithecia trisignaria and Eilema pseudocomplana) to the Hungarian fauna, which were introduced singly in separate studies before the standard account. The noctuid Hyppa rectilinea (Noctuidae) was found in 1967 in a light trap operating beside a forestry workers' hostel at Keresztkut (RÉZBÁNYAI 1968). The first specimen of Hydrelia testaceata, a geometrid moth (Geometridae), was caught in the light trap at Stájerházak in 1964 and recurred at Keresztkut in 1967. The one previous specimen collected is in the Lepidoptera collection at the Hungarian Natural History Museum, with the location record 'Budapest, Pavel', which is probably erroneous, in view of the species' habitat requirements. Since JÁNOS PÁVEL collected in the Kőszeg Hills, he may indeed have caught it, but attached the wrong label (RÉZBÁNYAI 1969). The third new species, Eupithecia trisignaria was caught in the light trap at Keresztkut in 1967 (RÉZBÁNYAI 1975). The status of the fourth species became clear only through later revision work. The fact that specimens have also been collected at Hackelsberg on the Austrian side of Fertő makes it probable that it also occurs in Hungary, but had escaped the attention of lepidopterists. Examination of the genital organs showed that the specimen caught at Keresztkut, identified initially as Eilema palliatella, was actually an example of E. pseudocomplana, while E. palliatella does not occur in the Kőszeg Hills (RÉZBÁNYAI 1981b). Several other specimens caught in the traps were only the second or third examples found in Hungary. That applied to Pericallia matronula, Polia hepatica, Apamea lateritia, Amphipyra perflua, Nycteola degenerana, Eupithecia lariciata, E. lanceata, Drepana curvulata, Thera stragulata and Lomographa cararia. The species trapped at Stájerházak were typical woodland dwellers, many of them coming expressly from montane beechwood. It is characteristic of this fauna to find relatively few species that develop in the ground layer, while there are high numbers of examples of species from the shrub layer and lichen-eaters from the tree-trunk level. It was confirmed that a high level of canopy growth impedes the occurrence of some Macrolepidoptera of the Alpine-Dealpine grassland, for which even the Stájerházak clearing was insufficient. The nocturnal Macrolepidoptera at Keresztkut were somewhat more balanced than those of Stájerházak. There are more woodland species, but fewer characteristic of montane beechwood, while those typical of the ground layer are missing. JÓZSEF Szőcs (1973) found a species new to the Hungarian fauna, Argyresthia semitestacella, among the lepidopterans collected by ALADÁR VISNYA at Kőszeg on August 19, 1939. In 1978, the Natural History of Praenoricum research programme was joined by MIKLÓS NYÍRÓ, who made regular collections in the Kőszeg Hills in 1978-85: by day within the accessible foothill inner-frontier zone from Bozsok to Kőszeg, and by night with mercuryvapour lamps at three locations in Velem. In the 1978-82 period, he demonstrated the occurrence of 726 macrolepidopteran species (NYÍRÓ 1985). His