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

62 PHYLUM NEMATODA (NEMATODES) There are relatively few data about nematodes in the region. Each researcher can cover only a restricted field, because of the high number of species in the taxon, the multiplicity of their lifestyles, and identification difficulties. ÁRPÁD SOÓS worked intensively on the free-living nematodes of the West Hungarian border region, especially those of the sphagnum bogs. ALADÁR VISNYA in the 1930s found a tiny patch of sphagnum moss on the top of the rock formation Kalaposkő near Bozsok,

1 where he collected altogether 70 specimens of 7 species of nematode from three samples (Soós 1940b). A sizeable stretch of sphagnum bog can still be found in Alsóerdő (Lower Wood) near Kőszeg,

2 whose nematodes were identified by Soós (1938a). Other publications by the same author also contain data on the nematode fauna of the region (Soós 1940a and 1940c). Nematodes parasitic of common voles (Microtus arvalis) were examined by FERENC MÉSZÁROS. Dissection of specimens caught mainly on farmland in the West Hungarian border region (Sopron: Tómalom, Őriszentpéter, Acsád, Pápóc, Bük, Tanakajd, Egyházasfalu and Jánosháza) revealed the following species of parasite nematode: Syphacia nigeriana, Heligmosomum mixtum, H. laevis and H. costellatum. Only a single specimen of Я. mixtum was found at Őriszentpéter (MÉSZÁROS 1977). Similar examinations were made of bank vole populations (Clethrionomys glareolus). Three collecting places (Sopron, Brennbergbánya and Őriszentpéter) yielded the following nematode species: Mastophorus muris, H. mixtum, H. glareoli, Heligmosomoides poly gyrus poly gyrus, Angiostrongylus dujardini and Syphacia petrusewiczi. Heligmosomoides polygyrus polygyrus occurred only at Őriszentpéter (MÉSZÁROS 1978). When the nematode fauna parasitic on bat species was researched, greater mouse-eyed bats (Myotis myotis) collected at Szentgotthárd were found to carry the widespread bat-parasite nematodes Molinostrongylus alatus and Litomosa desportesi (MÉSZÁROS 1971). Fauna Regni Hungáriáé contains only a single piece of data from Lake Fertő (RÁcz 1920). Forty years later, ISTVÁN ANDRÁSSY (1962) reported from the lake a species of nematode new to science. During the year 2000, a great quantity of free-living nematode samples were collected in vari1 VISNYA, A. 1939. Sphagnum-folt a Kalaposkőn (A sphagnum patch on Kalaposkő). Vasi Szemle 6:346-7. (Reprinted: A Kőszegi Múzeum Közleményei—Publicationes Musei Ginsiensis l(12):l-2.) 2 The bog, not far from the road between Kőszeg and Ólmod, in the Alsó-erdő (Lower Wood) was discovered in 1931 by ÖDÖN KASCSÁK SZEGI. Several outstanding botanists have visited it since. It is now under strict protection, as the richest area of Sphagnum species in the country. See ZÓLYOMI, В. 1939. A kőszegi tőzegmohás láp (Sphagnum bog near Kőszeg). Vasi Szemle 6:254-9. (Reprinted: A Kőszegi Múzeum Közleményei—Publicationes Musei Ginsiensis l(ll):l-6.); idem 1939. Das Kőszeger sphagnumreicher Moor. Botanikai Közlemények 36:318-25; BARTHA, D., and T. MARKOVICS 1994. A kőszegi tőzegmohás láp (Sphagnum bog near Kőszeg). In BARTHA, D. ed. A Kőszegi-hegység vegetációja (Vegetation of the Kőszeg Hills), 175-82. Kőszeg/Sopron.