L. Forró szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 8. 1993 (Budapest, 1993)

Merkl, O.: Zoological collectings by the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Africa: a report on the Elgon Expedition, 1992

the vegetation being broken and smashed and the bark of most trees torn into pieces. Antelopes (Kobus ellipsiprymnus, Tragelaphus scriptus, Cephalopus sp.) and guereza monkeys (Colobus guereza) were commonly seen while giant forest hogs (Hylochoerus meinerzhageni) were spotted only once. The most spectacular birds included hornbills (Bycanistes subcylindricus), turacoes (Turaco hartlaubi), flycatchers (Terpsiphone viridis) etc. Due to the milder climate the night collecting was much more efficient than in the upper camp as far as the Coleoptera and Hymenoptera are concerned. Both the light trap and the blended light lamp were operated every night, the results being slightly different in quality: for example, large saturniids were attracted exclusively by the light trap. The number and diversity of beetles and wasps flying to light considerably exceeded that of the 3200-meter camp but, interestingly, no hawk moth was captured here. Daytime collecting included sweeping and handsearching a huge variety of insects living on herbage; singling ground-dweller arthropods from beneath logs and stones; and taking dung beetles from buffalo pats. Two species of bats (Miniopterus schreibersi and Rhinolophus sp.) were secured in the Chepnyalil Cave. In the swept material the richest-in-species groups included Apionidae, Hispinae, Nitidulidae, Scymninae, Lagriini of the beetles, Braconidae and Ichneumonidae of the hymenopterans, but true bugs, cicads, stalk-eyed flies (Diopsidae) were also numerous. Various papilionid and nymphalid butterflies were captured both from flowers and dung. Of the insect-attracting plants, the richest assemblage (including rose chafers Pachnoda and Leucochelis, pyrrhocorid bugs Dysdercus and various lycids) was seen on the pink inflorescence of Vernonia auriculifera. In the coprophagous fauna, the number of a few Onitis species was the highest. Mt. Kenya Situated astride the Equator, Mt. Kenya is the highest mountain of Kenya and the second highest in Africa, the highest point, Batian, reaching 5195 m. Higher, steeper, younger, wetter and more intensely studied than Mt. Elgon. The zonation and the structure of the vegetation belts of Mt. Kenya are similar to those on Mt. Elgon but the bamboo zone constitutes a nearly continuous ring (Fig. 3). These belts and zones are not discussed here in detail as relatively little time was spent here. Detailed studies of the vegetation belts have been published e.g. by Hedberg (1951). We stayed in the Mt. Kenya National Park, at the Meteorological Station, the well-known base of tourists at 3040 m a. s. 1. A simple timber house provided shelter; a troop of blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) caused some nuisance. Most of the participants climbed Lenana Point (4985 m) along Teleki Valley and only the author did zoological work in the moss forest and in the clearings of the bamboo zone. Owing to the more humid climate, the composition of the material swept from the undergrowth clearly differed from that of the Mt. Elgon at the same altitude. For instance, Curculionidae and Chrysomelidae, rarely found on the Mt. Elgon, and a sexually dimorphic cantharid beetle comprised the major part of the collection here and Cerambycidae, which we failed to swept on the upper Mt Elgon, were also represented. The ground-dwelling fauna (snails, diplopods, carabids, earwigs) was similar in composition but different in species. Earthworms were much more numerous than in the soil of Mt. Elgon. In the frosty night, only a modest number of moths was attracted by light and not a single beetle was captured.