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

Phylum Arthropode! 141 ta was first collected in 1952 near Szakonyfalu by PÁL TALLÓS. Unfortunately, he misidentified the five male specimens as Gnophos dilucidaria and they found their way into the literature under that name (KOVÁCS 1958a; TALLÓS 1958). The record was revised by ANDRÁS VOJNITS (1968) after examination of the male genitalia. LAJOS KOVÁCS identified as a separate subspecies the Western populations of Hyssia cavernosa, described from the Southern Urals. As a type specimen, he took an example caught in the light trap at Tanakajd on July 19, 1963, naming the taxon (initially as a new species) Hyssia gozmanyi, in honour of LÁSZLÓ GOZMÁNY. (The valid name today is Hyssia cavernosa gozmanyi). Specimens of the subspecies have since been caught in several places in Western Hungary (KOVÁCS 1968; MÉSZÁROS et al 1983; BENEDEK et al. 2002). Another pugs species, Chloroclystis chloerata, was also caught first near Szakonyfalu, on June 17,1956, by PÁL TALLÓS, who found further specimens in 1964 and 1965 in a light trap at the Kámon Arboretum, Szombathely. These are the southernmost occurrences of the species (VOJNITS 1970). The beautiful yellow underwing (Anarta myrtilli), according to Fauna Regni Hungáriáé data, was first caught at Sopron, but the record has since been doubted. JÓZSEF ERDŐS caught two males on July 30, 1961 in heather near Szakonyfalu in the Vendvidék, so providing a proven occurrence of the species in Hungary (VOJNITS 1971). ANDRÁS AMBRUS (1979a) found three moth species new to the Hungarian fauna near Sopron. The first was Odezia atrata, collected on June 20, 1978 on the edge of Szárhalom. However, this species of an Alpine nature was probably a vagrant, rather than a permanent resident in the Szárhalom Wood. The second, Euxoa decora, was found at Tacsi Dike in the Sopron Hills on November 5, 1970. The third was the noctuid Lasionycta proxima (AMBRUS 1979b; see also RÉZBÁNYAI 1981a). A light trap at Fertőrákos yielded a second specimen for Hungary of the noctuid Arenostola phragmitidis (MÉSZÁROS and RONKAY 1980). On May 24, 1979 near Szakonyfalu, IMRE BALOGH (1983) caught a moth new to the Hungarian fauna: Nemophora ochsenheimerella. ÁKOS UHERKOVICH joined the research into the moths and butterflies of the West Hungarian border region at the beginning of the 1970s. His motive was not only a desire to know the macrolepidopteran fauna, for he sought zoogeographical connections with Southern Transdanubia, where he had already worked, the Bakony and Western Transdanubia (UHERKOVICH 19 75). Following the pattern of the earlier light-trap examinations, he set up two light traps that operated all year in 1975 and 1976 at Szalafő and Magyarszombatfa. In addition, he collected personally at Szőce, Őriszentpéter and Magyarszombatfa and processed material taken in 1975 at two plant-protection light-traps, at Vasvár and Celldömölk, as well as a smaller collection from the Sárvár district. During these collections, a species new to the Hungarian fauna, Perizoma sagittata, was found at Szakonyfalu on August 2, 1967. One further specimen each was found later in light traps at two localities in the Őrség, at Magyarszombatfa on July 15, 1976 and at Szalafő on July 26, 1976 (UHERKOVICH 1977).