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

Phylum Annelida 75 the border regions of Hungary, Austria fined to Central Europe. It has been and Slovakia. Another species that found in Hungary only in a few localities deserves mentioning is the limicolous in the extreme west (See also Zicsi 1968; Eisenia spelaea, whose distribution is con- CSUZDI 1995.) SUBCLASS HIRUDINEA (LEECHES) Order Rhynchobdellida (rhynchobdellid leeches) An interesting early occurrence with leech species is related by ERNŐ LÁSZLÓ.

2 A French merchant by the name of J.B. VARAMBIER appeared at Sopron in 1827 and set up leech ponds in the garden known as Erzsébet-kert, having received Permit No. 2682 to do so from the town corporation. The water was drawn from the Deák-kút Brook and delivered through the millstream of KRAUSS'S Mill. In 1833, GOTTFRIED LICHTL appeared before the corporation as the Frenchman's successor, applying to be relieved of the charges of maintaining the ponds. Later KRAUSS the miller set up a leech pond, but the gild of felt makers protested, saying he was polluting their water. The corporation issued a new permit, No. 1587, to establish a leech pond in 1834. It is not known how long the breeding of leeches prospered in the town. An article appeared in a Vienna miscellany in 1832, in which the author enquired, 'How many leeches are taken annually from Lake Fertő to France? I would like to obtain reliable knowledge of that.' According to documents of the time, there was a market for 53 million leeches a year in France, of which 35 million were being imported. The occurrence of eight species of leech in Fertő became known from researches by FRITZ GEYER and HANS MANN (1939), and SÁNDOR ANDRIKOVICS (1973). Further occurrence records from Fertő appeared in ILDIKÓ VARGA (2002). The data on the leech collection at the Mátra Museum in Gyöngyös were published by PÉTER JUHÁSZ, TIBOR KOVÁCS and ANDRÁS AMBRUS (JUHÁSZ et al. 2000). The collecting had been done in 1993-9 at 150 locations in the country. Previously, there had only been a couple of sporadic data on the leech fauna of the country, from one or two stretches of water. The authors underlined the richness of the leech fauna in the Rába and Kerka, each of which yielded eight species. Three of the species in the Rába are rare: Glossiphonia paludosa, Caspiobdella fadajewi and Cystobranchus respirons. So are two in the Kerka: Caspiobdella fadajewi and Trocheta riparia. The last had been described from the Pinka in 1993 as a species new to science (NESEMANN 1993). The authors of the article then found the second specimen in the Kerka, 2 LÁSZLÓ, E. 1961. Lehetne-e nagyobb mértékben értékesíteni a fertői piócát? (Could the leeches of Fertő be old in larger quantities?). Soproni Szemle 15:281-2.