Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)
Phylum Wertehr ata 167 CLASS AMPHIBIA (AMPHIBIANS) AND 'REPTILIA' (REPTILES) —CLASS DIAPSIDA The earliest Western Hungarian records of these taxa occurs in a description by GYÖRGY NEMESNÉPI ZAKÁL (1818): 'Nonetheless, snakes of fearsome size are found often in their great woods, 20 which startle travellers. Also mentioned frequently is the harmful short-tailed snake, 21 but I have never seen such, nor heard of a bite from it. The lake waters contain many little yellow-backed, particoloured toads, 22 whose venom I felt in my eyes in childhood, when I handled a toad and then touched my eyes. My great pain was eased with breast milk.' Amphibians and reptiles seem to have been neglected in Hungarian zoology, for the first significant work of herpetology —IMRE FRIVALDSZKY'S on snakes 23 —appeared only in 1823. The West Hungarian border region is among the most interesting in the country from the herpetological point of view, but discounting the area of the FertőHanság National Park, no study summarizing its amphibian and reptile fauna has yet appeared. Herpetological researches in the Fertő and Hanság districts began at the end of the 18th century (see MÉHELY 1892). Of the many publications, the following deserve a special mention: ENTZ (1911), MÉHELY (1911, 1912, 1918b and 1929), WERNER (1897, 1912, 1913, 1922 and 1935), LOVASSY (192 7), FEJÉRVÁRYNÉ-LÁNGH (1934); FEJÉRVÁRY-LÁNGH (1943a and 1943b); VÁSÁRHELYI (1941a) and EIBL (1947). Beginning in the 1960s, OLIVÉR GYÖRGY DELY, ISTVÁN SZABÓ and MIKLÓS JANISCH paid much attention to the herpeto-fauna of the West Hungarian border region (DELY 1964, 1966, 1967, 1974, 1978 and 1981; DELY and JANISCH 1959; DELY and STOHL 1984; SZABÓ 1959a, 1959b, 1961a, 1961b, 1961c and 1962; see also VÁSÁRHELYI 1965). ANDRÁS GUBÁNYI and associates followed up a revision of the literary data and herpetological material in various Hungarian collections with a standard herpeto-faunistic account of the FertőHanság National Park (GUBÁNYI et al 2002c). On the Hungarian side of Fertő, there has long been knowledge of the migration of amphibians and reptiles between the villages of Fertőboz and Hidegség. Rescue operations for amphibians and reptiles were carried out over seven migration seasons from the autumn of 1987 to the autumn of 1990, by the Sopron Branch of the 19 The most recent taxonomic works make the former 'Reptilia class' broad enough to include birds, so that there ceases to be a 'class Aves'. This term reptiles as applied in this book refers only to living species traditionally placed in the taxonomically unspecified group Reptilia. See KORSÓS, Z. 1996. Magzatburkosok (Amniotes). In: PAPP, L. ed. Zootaxonómia (Zootaxonomy), 322-43. Budapest. 20 The size reference suggests that the author means the Aesculapian snake (Elaphe longissima). 21 This may refer to the adder (Vipera berus), although its presence in the region is questionable. 22 Yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata). 23 FRIVALDSZKY, I. 1823. Monographia Serpentum Hungáriáé. Pest.
