Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)
140 Phylum Arthropoda material included 131 species new to the district, missing from LÁSZLÓ RÉZBÁNYAI'S species list of 1974. The amateur lepidopterist FERENC NAGY made collections in the Kőszeg Hills, the Perenye and vicinity, and woodlands near Nárai in 1980-90. Regrettably little research into moths and butterflies had been done between Kőszeg and Szombathely or to the south of Szombathely, so that his work contributed greatly to expanding knowledge of the moth fauna there. His study gives occurrence data for 100 butterflies from those areas (NAGY 1999). There was intensive research into moths and butterflies on the Austrian side of the Kőszeg Hills in the 1950s and 1960s, revealing several species that probably occur also on the Hungarian side. With the Austrian data added, 57 860 macrolepidopterous species had been shown to occur in the whole Kőszeg Hills area by the 1970s. Hungarian lepidopterists assisted in exploring the fauna of Burgenland, LÁSZLÓ ISSEKUTZ in the 1956-71 period and the activity of IMRE FAZEKAS being prime examples. 58 PÁL TALLÓS began collecting Lepidoptera in the Őrség and Vendvidék in the 1950s. He spent a lengthy period in 1954 near Szőce, with the Agricultural and Forestry Plant Geography Cartographic Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, followed in 1955-8 by a spell in the Szakonyfalu district of the central Vendvidék. There he took part in mapping vegetation. 59 His collections near Szakonyfalu were made in or near the valley of the Grajka Brook. LAJOS KOVÁCS and LÁSZLÓ GOZMÁNY also took part in identifying the material, which included several very rare species and some new to the Hungarian fauna (Scopula umbelaria, Calocalpe undulata, Dysstroma truncata and Macaria signaria —TALLÓS 1958). Collecting data of the whole collection —263 macrolepidoptera species —were published later (TALLÓS 1959). He was prevented from continuing this valuable work by a tragically early death. Several shorter studies appeared in subsequent decades, in which there are references to occurrences of Macrolepidoptera in the West Hungarian border region. Some of these, noted in subsequent paragraphs, present species new to the Hungarian fauna. Others give new occurrence data for the distribution of known species (KOVÁCS 1956b, 1958a, 1958b, 1966 and 1968; GYULAI et al. 1974 and 1979; MÉSZÁROS 1967; MÉSZÁROS and RONKAY 1980). The intensive research work has rapidly expanded knowledge of Hungary's moth and butterfly fauna. Disregarding the time sequence, the following species new to the Hungarian fauna were found first in the West Hungarian border region. The geometrid Gnophos ambigua57 PINKER, R. 1958. Beiträge zur Lepidopterenfauna des südlichen Burgenlandes. Zeitschrift der Wiener entomologischen Gesellschaft 43:98-101,133-5, 147-51 and 153-4; HAYEK, W. 1959. Falter vom Hirschenstein. Zeitschrift der Wiener entomologischen Gesellschaft 44:163-9; ISSEKUTZ, L. 1971. Die Schmetterlingsfauna des südlichen Burgenlandes. I. Macrolepidoptera. Wissenschaftliche Arbeiten aus dem Burgenland 46:1-165; idem 1972. Die Schmetterlingsfauna des südlichen Burgenlandes. II. Microlepidoptera. Ibid. 49:1-129. 58 FAZEKAS, I. 1975. Adatok Burgenland (Sigless) nagylepke-faunájához (Data on the lepidopteran fauna of Burgenland). Folia entomologica hungarica (NS) 28:233. 59 SZONTAGH, P. 1970. Megemlékezés Tallós Pálról (1931-1968) (In memóriám PT). Állattani Közlemények 57:19-22.
