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

66 9 PHYLUM MOLLUSCA (MOLLUSCS) The literature on malacology includes a surprisingly large number of publications about the mollusc fauna of the West Hungarian border region. Molluscs are in the forefront, but shells have also been favourite objects of research with amateur malacologists. This goes some way to explaining the volume of publications, but the reasons why so many researchers have chosen parts of the West Hungarian border region can be seen more clearly in terms of the special conditions provided by the region's geographical position. The first known piece of data refers to the Sopron district in 1660, where 'the snails have done great damage to the oats and barley' (PAYR). Several naturalists were making malacological collections and faunistic investigations in the Sopron Hills by the 19th century, but the first known definitely to have explored the mollusc fauna of the district was REZSŐ SZÉP (1897). LAJOS SOÓS

1 and ENDRE DUDICH did research there in the early decades of the 20th century (DUDICH 1926, Soós 1927 and 1933). The latter returned to the district several times and was responsible for discovering the Alpine species Pagodulina pagodula. However, it has to be said that many of the locations in these early studies lie in Austrian territory today. ANDOR RICHNOVSZKY and GYULA KOVÁCS twice spent two weeks collecting in the Sopron and vicinity at the end of the 1960s and published their findings (KOVÁCS and RICHNOVSZKY 1970). Unfortunately they did not give accurate collecting locations, but simply drew parallels between the species they found and those discovered by JÁNOS WAGNER. ISTVÁN PINTÉR (1974) collected near Sopron on Bécsi-domb and at Kis-Tómalom and Sopronbánfalva in 1967, gathering more than 350 specimens of 24 species. GYULA KOVÁCS returned in 1977 and found 14 species hitherto unknown in the vicinity (KOVÁCS 1980), having collected almost 5000 specimens of 64 species of mollusc. Interestingly, the influence of the Alps is hardly felt in the vicinity of Sopron district, where Alpine elements are hardly found. Apart from Pagodulina pagodula, mentioned already, only Semilimax semilimax, Aegopis verticillus, Cochlodina fimbriata and Macrogastra densestriata occur (see PODANI and SziGETHY 1974; KROLOPP and VARGA 1990). Most of the fauna consists of typical Central European species. ISTVÁN PINTÉR (1980) conducted a survey of the mollusc fauna of Győr-Mo1 LAJOS SOÓS was born at Magyargencs, Veszprém County, on February 6, 1879. After elementary school, he completed his studies at the Evangelical Lyceum in Sopron. His varied work can be grouped into studies of the taxonomy, morphology and development, faunistic studies and zoogeography, and palaeozoology of molluscs. His life's work culminated with A Kárpát-medence Mollusca faunája (Mollusc Fauna of the Carpathian Basin). Hungarian malacologists named a journal of theirs Soosiana in his honour. He died on August 28, 1972. On his life, see LUKÁCS, D. 1983. Soós Lajos (1879-1972). Soproni Szemle 37:89-91.