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

224 Phylum Vertebrata Figure 14.11. The mole rat (Nannospalax leucodon), illustrated in IMRE FRIVALDSZKY'S Revealing Facts about the Fauna of Hungary (1865) KITAIBEL, was the first to catch a mole rat in Hungary. This item of information in a highly significant publication by IMRE FRIVALDSZKY (1865) (Figure 14.11) was not quoted by JENŐ DADAY (1883), but ENDRE OROSZ (1904) appended to it an accurate identification (S. typhlus = S. leuèodon). LAJOS MÉHELY (1909) in his vast monograph on mole rat species declared, 'There is no deciding whether the specimens... caught by Baron Ocskay in the Sopron district belong to this [S. hungaricus hungaricus] species or rather to S. monticola syrmiensis without knowing the specimens concerned.' This shows that the specimen had not been placed in a collection or had been destroyed or gone astray by that time. The specimen is likely to have been a lesser mole rat (Nannospalax leucodon).

118 LAJOS MÉHELY (1897) reported occurrences of wild cat (Felis silvestris) in Sopron. LÁSZLÓ SOLYMOSY (1939a) enumerated the insectivores, bats and rodents of Sopron County, adding brief notes on the species listed. Among new location data for mammals in Hungary, ISTVÁN VÁSÁRHELYI (1939) cites some in Sopron County (e.g. striped field mouse at Brennbergbánya). The same author includes locations in the West Hungarian border region in his account of the Hungarian distribution of two small mammals: common pine voles (Microtus subterraneus) and striped field mice (Apodemus agrárius—VÁSÁRHELYI 1942a and 1942b). These works rely not only on his own work, but on literary references, for instance to SOLYMOSY (1939a) just quoted and to a piece by JENŐ 118 See also GUBÁNYI et al. 2002b.