L. Forró - É. Murai szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 5. 1989 (Budapest, 1989)

Csorba, G.; Demeter, A.: Zoological collectings by the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Korea. 90. A report on the collecting of the Tenth Expedition

MISCELLANEA Tomuß 5. ZOOLOGICA HUNGARICA 1989. p. 95-97 Zoological collectings by the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Korea. 90. A report on the collecting of the Tenth Expedition By G. CSORBA and A. DEMETER (Received January 12, 1989) ABSTRACT. A brief account and an annotated list of collecting localities of the 10th Expedition by the Hungarian Natural History Museum to Korea is given. KEY WORDS: Zoological expedition, localities of material, Korea. The 10th expedition from the Hungarian Natural History Museum to Korea was different from previous ones in two aspects. This was the first four-man expedition and it was for the first time that collection of vertebrates - mainly mammals and birds - was the main objective of the trip. These two facts led to, and in fact necessitated the participation of two taxidermist, György SIPOS and Imre IZSÁK. They took more than their share not only in preserving the collected material on the spot, but also in the collecting work. The collecting equipment included 240 small mammal snap-traps and mole-traps, 3 mist-nets and some traps for small carnivores. Since permission to use fire-arms for collecting would have been very difficult to obtain, we decided not to carry even an air-gun. A catapult with lead shots was used to collect birds, which was found to be a usable solution, if far from being satisfactory. The group departed from Budapest on 1 November, 1986, and flew via Moscow to reach Pyongyang on the following day. We spent a total of 19 days in the field, and returned to Budapest on 2 December. We visited Mt. Myohyang-san, Mt. Kumgang-san, and the environs of Haeju, and Kaesong, respectively. Our original plans included a visit to Paekdu-san in the north, but snowfall prevented us from travelling to that area. The timing of our visit, November, is unsuitable, to entomologists, who manned the majority of the previous expeditions. However, the season was excellent for small-mammal trapping. A total of 200 specimens was obtained, whose external parasites and intestines for analysis of internal parasites were fixed in alcohol. (The numbering of the parasitological samples is the same as for the hosts.) Since the specific collecting numbers of the vertebrates differ from the sample numbers used for invertebrates, we did not continue with the numbering system of the previous expeditions. However, subsequently it turned out to be useful document continually the collecting activities of the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Korea. Therefore our numbers (No. 1072 to No. 1310) follow those of the 1987 expedition in spite of its priority. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to express our gratitude to the Academies of Sciences of both the Hungarian and the Korean People's Republics and to the Zoological Institute in Pyongyang for the possibility to carry out zoological research in Korea. We are especially grateful to our local companions, Mr. NAM CHOLL and Mr. KANG DAE-RYONG for their hospitality during our stay.