Annales Musei historico-naturalis hungarici

Author(s): Bálint, Zs. & Katona, G.
Title: Notes on the Hungarian populations of Melanargia russiae (Esper, 1783) extinct since a hundred years (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae, Satyrinae)
Year: 2013
Volume: 105
Pages: 179-198.

Abstract: The 47 specimens of Melanargia russiae (Esper, 1783) collected in Budapest and Kunpeszér and deposited in the Lepidoptera collections of the Hungarian Natural History Museum are catalogued. The species considered extinct in Hungary was last collected in the Great Hungarian Plain before World War I. Various scenarios were proposed to explain the extinction of the species, including aff orestation, more intensive forest management, and overcollecting. Via revising contemporary literature the alleged Pannonian distribution of the species is determined, and visits in the former M. russiae sites are recorded. Based on the catalogued specimens and further holdings in other collections it is demonstrated that none of the existed populations was ever overcollected. Th e most probable causes of the extinction were the region’s heavy drainage and changes in forest management. According to the records Baron Charles Rothschild and his wife were the last observers of the species in Hungary in the year 1913. With 11 figures and 2 tables.
Keywords: drainage, Kunpeszér, local extinction, Melanargia russiae, Pannonia, Rothschild
Subject: zoology

Journal: Annales historico-naturales Musei nationalis hungarici
Journal abbreviation: Annls hist.-nat. Mus. nat. hung.
ISSN: 0521-4726
Publisher: Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest
Editor(s): Merkl, O., Matskási, I. & Fuisz, T. I.