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

Phylum Mollusca 67 son-Sopron County, concentrating not on a presentation of the fauna, but on recording the locations of the species collected so far according to the EIS UTM-System international standard grid maps and drawing attention to the importance of regular collections. Faunistic data also appear in some taxonomic works (PINTÉR 1967 and 1968; SZIGETHY 1975). For instance, ANNA SZIGETHY (1973), in revising the species of the Vertigo genus present in Hungary, records the occurrences of V. moulinsiana and V. pygmaea in Sopron and Pinnye. LÁSZLÓ SZÖRÉNYI collected 412 items of mollusc material in 1980-82 and demonstrated the presence of 80 species. Subtracting from these the freshwater and subfossil molluscs leaves 57 recent land-gastropod species (SZÖRÉNYI 1983). Also in 1982, he examined the mollusc material in ten soil samples each taken from ten woodland plant communities (SZÖRÉNYI 1984). He found 51 species in the squares, which represented quite well the entire woodland and landgastropod fauna of the district. The samples showed clearly that the presence of lime in the soil is a limiting factor on the spread of snail communities and that shared snail species can signify relationship between plant communities at different stages of succession. Interestingly, Pagodulina pagodula was found only in Zichy Meadow near Sopron. This may mark the eastern edge of its range (cf. PODANI and SZIGETHY 1974; KOVÁCS 1980; KROLOPP and VARGA 1990—the last pair of authors record it elsewhere in the Sopron district, at Brennbergbánya, Füzes Dike, Kovács Brook, Tacsi Brook, the quarry at Deák's Well, and Görbehalom, and in the valley of Rák Brook). SZÖRÉNYI later extended his work to the Kőszeg Hills, where he studied the relationship between mollusc fauna and vegetation (SZÖRÉNYI 1986 and 1987a). His collections also produced a snail species new to the Hungarian fauna: Macrogastra densestriata (SZÖRÉNYI 1985). Delegates to the 1985 Hungarian Malacological Convention found a mollusc species new to the Hungarian fauna at five collecting points in the valley of Hidegvíz Brook, in the western part of the Sopron Hills (NÉMETH et al. 1987), making Cochlodina fimbriate! the fourth recent Hungarian species of the Cochlodina genus (cf. ROTARIDES 1942; KISS and PINTÉR 1985, which both contain abundance data for the West Hungarian border region as well.) Also discovered for the first time in this country was the slug species Arion lusitanicus, on the bank of the Ikva in Sopron on June 29, 1985 (VARGA 1986). An interesting communication about Fertő came from LAJOS VARGA (1931b), who wrote of 'catastrophes' occurring to the lake

—instances of drying up and great floods

—which also affected the aquatic mollusc fauna, of course. The chemical composition and astatic nature of the water leave the mollusc fauna relatively low in diversity, but certain species may become abundant and on occasions consume large quantities of reed (IMHOF and BURIAN 1972). VARGA (1931b) mentioned six mollusc species in the Fertő reeds, as did SÁNDOR ANDRIKOVICS (1973). Only a few unsystematic collection data for the Fertő district are known from Hungarian sources (PINTÉR 1960 and 1962), but Austrian researchers have made regular studies of both the Austrian and Hungarian sides