Kálmán Kittenberger and the Hungarian National Museum — Museum of Natural History

B y I . Boros, Budapest

Among those who considerably enrichened the overseas material of the Hungarian National Museum —• Museum of Natural History without ever having belonged to the official staff, we come up against names, which are well-known also internationally. To mention but a few, I think i t is enough to remind museum workers of Dr. L . D o l e s c h a l l (the Sunda Isles), T. D u k a (East India), S. F e n i c h e l (New Guinea), B. S z é c h e n y i (the Far East), J. Z i c h y (Turkestan, Inner Asia), dr. Gy. A 1 m á s y (Inner Asia, Africa), Ö. K o v á c s (Africa), J. X a n t u s (the Far East, the Sunda Isles), L . B i r ó (New Guinea). Among them, J. X a n t u s (1825—1894), after having returned from his emigration abroad, became a member of the staff of the Zoological Department of the National Museum as a nominal director ; and L . B i r ó (1856—1931), from whose collectings in New Guinea several new data and taxa are published even today in the publications of the great European Museums, are the best known. Besides them and in ever widening circles, Kálmán K i t t e n b e r g e r arises to fame, who, though primarily famous all over the world as a sure-handed hunter of African big game, left enduring traces, similarly to the above ones, by his collecting activities in the Annals of science and in the history of our museum.

We were therefore understandably shocked by the sad news on 4 January 1958, that one of our best friends and highly esteemed colleague : Ká lmán K i t t e n b e r g e r died suddenly after a short illness.

He was born i n Léva, 10 October 1881. Having finished the local teachers' training school, and in pursuance of his inclinations to study animals, he con­tinued studies in the teacher's institute of the high-school of Budapest for the sake of widening his knowledge. A t the same time, he diligently visited the zoological preparatories of the National Museum to acquaint himself wi th the methods for collecting and preparing animals. Never even finishing his high-school studies, he went to teach in the village Tatrang, in Transylvania. Nor could he remain there. When he received a letter from the National Museum calling on h im that there is a possibility to travel to Africa accompanying P. Bornemissza, then hunting and collecting i n Bri t ish East Africa, even the wonderful hunting possibilities of the Transylvanian mountains were unable to hold h im back, and he set forth unhesitatingly; receiving his teacher's salary in advance for one whole year, as a youngster of 21 years i n December 1902 and w i t h but the most indispensable meager equipment, he started for East Africa, — and became a life-long lover of i t . W i t h the steadfastness of devoted men, of people ready to even sacrifice their lives i n the service of a set purpose, many times i n difficult circumstances and interrupting his journeys occasionally, he visited six times the equatorial territories of East Africa, zoogeographically

the richest and, from the point of view of the variety of fauna, the most interesting areas of the continent. He collected and hunted in 1902—1906 in the primordial forests of the Kilimanjaro and in the neighbouring styeps and savannas ; then in 1906—1907 in the Danakil area, starting from Assab on the Red Sea ; and in the styep counties (Ruwana—Serengeti) of the eastern shores of the Vic­toria Nyanza in 1908—-1912. From 1913 to 1919 he worked in Eastern Uganda, yet only for half a year, since at the beginning of world war I . , he was interned, and then deported to India, and he arrived back home only after the end of the war. I n 1925—1926, he hunted in Uganda again, first near the Nile, then in the western territories in the forests around the Ruwenzori ; finally, i n 1928—1929, he was again hunting in Western Uganda, studying the life of big game and birds.

Even before his first journey, he made an agreement wi th the director of the Zoological Department of the National Museum at that time, Dr. G. H o r v á t h , in accordance of which he had to collect animals in compliance w i t h the scientific demands and for a corresponding indemnity for the Museum. And, up to 1914, oftenest several times annually, his material did arrive in large cases : skillfully prepared mam­malian and bird skins, but mainly invertebrate animals : spiders, myriapods, scorpions, mites, crustaceans, mollusks, etc., and a diversity of insects. As could be ascertained from his correspondance and from our inventory books, only 213 mammals were received i n the Museum, — much less than were bagged. To wi t , he was compelled to sell the majority of the big game to rich foreign museums, mainly the Brit ish Museum, since from the poor repayments of the National Museum he was unable either to obtain the expensive equipment or to organize and maintain his expeditions. He often spoke of i t that he did this against his better intentions and beliefs. Even so, his mammalian material sent to our Museum, i n which, apart from the smaller rodents, there are hyaenas, big cats, antilops, buffalos, monkeys and two chimpanzees, is st i l l the best African material of our Mammalian Collection. Among them, the only zoological rar i ty is the Giant Wart Hog (Hylochoerus meinertzhageni).

He enriched our collections wi th 2500 birds. For scientific researches, he sent eminently fine series, mainly from the genera Francolinus, Oedicnemus, Cursorius, Vinago, Caprimulgus, Apus, Riparia, Cinnyris, Crater opus, Campe-phaga, Cisticola, Bradypterus, Sporopipes, Laniarius, Chlorophoenus, Lagonos-ticta. Of them, according to Gy. M a d a r á s z , one of the ornithologists at the tu rn of the century of our Museum, several forms were found to be new for science, and, as can be established from literature, 5 subspecies : Cisticola brachyptera Katonae Mad., Cisticola constans pictipennis Mad., Cisticola chiniana humilis Mad., Bradypterus baboecola elgonensis Mad., and Sporopipes frontalis cinerascens Mad., are st i l l considered valid to date.

The number of amphibians and reptiles originating from his collections also attains several hundreds or nearly a thousand, but, unfortunately, we could not establish the exact data due to the destruction of our inventory books i n 1956. Though L . M é h e l y used this material for his osteological examinations, no one worked i t out faunistically and systematically. I t is sure, however, that he collected and sent back home almost all better known repre­sentatives of the rich East African herpetofauna.

However, as I have mentioned above, he mainly collected invertebrates, according to his instructions received from the Museum. And that too, pre-

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ponderantly insects, first of all beetles i n 26 000 specimens, most of them i n the late German East Africa, less so i n Uganda. A part of i t were already worked out by specialists ; the Chrysomelidae are being studied i n these days, the Cur-colionids are stil l untouched. Of the material worked out, about 60 species new to science were found, and numerous species bear the name of their col­lector ( K a t o n a — K i t t e n b e r g e r ) , as Carabomorphus Katonae Csiki, Tefflus Katonae Csiki, Perigona Katonae Csiki, Pachnoda Katonae Csiki, Stili-cus Katonae Bernhauer, Medon Katonae Bernhauer, Philonthus Katonae Bern-hauer, Endustomus Kittenbergeri Kaszab, Zonitis Kittenbergeri Kaszab, Psaly-dolytta Kittenbergeri Kaszab, Eletica colorata pallidipennis Fairm. ab. Kitten­bergeri Kaszab, Cory na Katonensis Pic, Aspidomorpha biguttata F. var. Katonae Spaeth.

He also collected a considerable number of bugs and homoptera, about 12—13 000 specimens, in the territories he visited. A large portion of them, however, is s t i l l unworked-out, about 7000 bugs and 1500 homoptera. Some 2000 specimens of them are now abroad, studied by specialists. From among these, new species, about 45, were also described, and the names of two bugs : Saldula Katonae Drake, and Compseuta Kittenbergeri Drake, then a homopteran : Hysteropterum Katonae Melichar reminds us of their collector.

He enriched further also our Hymenoptera collection w i t h a valuable African material of about 6000 specimens. Aside of ants, mainly the families Braconidae, Proctotrupidae Chrysididae, Sphegidae and Apidae are r ichly repre­sented in his collectings, and several home and foreign authors (S z é p 1 i -g e t h y , M o c s á r y , H a n d l i r s c h , A n d r é , B i s c h o f f , F o r e l ) described, as could be established up to now, about 80 new species originating from them. The name of their collector is immortalized by the following forms : Cephalotilla Katonai Bischoff, Odontotilla bidentata André ssp. Katonai Bischoff, Mutilla (?) Katonai André , Chrysis Katonae Mocsáry, Pheidole sculpturata Mayr var. Katonae Forel, Anochetus Grandidieri F ior i var. Katonae For.

He also considerably contributed to the Dipterological Collection of the Museum. He dispatched some 7000 valuable East African flies to us, of which, however, only about 2500 acalyptrate flies were saved from the conflagration of the Museum, to which also the f ly collection fell v ic t im, on the 5th November 1956. Of these, about 2000 specimens are determined, 500 sti l l awaiting working out. Foreign specialists, as H e r i n g , B e z z i , M u n r o , B e c k e r , H e n -d e l , D u d a , have described 4 new genera and 35 new species up to now. Of the new genera, one : Katonaia Munro ; of the species, three : Dacus Katonai Bezzi, Brachioptera Katonai Munro, and Tephrella Katonai Bezzi, were named in his honor. The descriptions of the species were published i n our Annals, further in those of the Vienna Miiseum and the Museum of Pretoria.

I t is a striking fact that, i n spite of the very rich East African Orthoptera fauna, we f ind but 445 specimens inventoried, as a K i t t e n b e r g e r mate­rial , in our books. But , since this collection was also destroyed, we could establish only the one i tem that D . K u t h y described a new species by the name Phlaeoba Horváthi of them, i n the 1911 volume of our Annals. I mention i t as but a numerical datum that he collected some 150 Neuropterans, but I could not establish any further data in this regard.

The Lepidopterans collected by him, and i n a much smaller amount than the former groups, consist mainly of colorful and large butterflies. He sent us some 600 specimens, collected chiefly around the Kilimanjaro and i n Uganda,

K Á L M Á N K I T T E N B E R G E R A N D T H E H U N G . N A T . M U S . 15

preponderantly from the large genera Papilio, Danais, Colias, Charaxes, Precis, Nymphalis, etc. There are also the small Lycaenids and Hesperids, as also some moths and microlepidoptera; these latter, however, s t i l l await working out.

Of the other arthropodan groups, 2537 spiders, 92 scorpions, 193 pseu­doscorpions, 539 mites, 42 myriapods and 2 solpugids originate from the collectings of Kittenberger, as testified by our books. Amongst them, as became evident from the weighty paper of L . di C a p o r i a c c o (Firenze) published i n 1947, the spider collection is especially valuable : two new genera : Crocodilosa and Pachynomastus, and more than 60 new species were found in i t . Of the recently described taxa, 5 bears the name of its discoverer : Catatemnus Kit­tenbergeri, Crocodilosa Kittenbergeri, Paralectana Kittenbergeri, Evophryus Kittenbergeri, Pachyonomastus Kittenbergeri (their author is C a p o r i a c c o ) .

Only the initiated know of a special problem which is up to me to clear now ; a problem in connection with the aboves, causing many troubles and misunderstandings especially abroad. Namely, — as probably already seen in our discussion — why is i t that the names of the new taxa designated to his honor are in some of the cases Kittenbergeri, and, at other times, — unfor­tunately much too often, — Katonae, Katonai, etc?

The name K a t o n a was given by Dr. G. H o r v á t h to K i t t e n b e r g e r , without the knowledge and consent of the latter ; for the simple cause that he wanted to coerce him to a Magyarization of his surname in vogue at that time and because the brothers of K i t t e n ­b e r g e r have previously changed their name to K a t o n a . As is to be verified from con­temporary correspondance, G. H o r v á t h used the name K a t o n a yet in parentheses after the original name on the face of the official documents of the Museum in 1903, therefore in the absence of K i t t e n b e r g e r ; then, in 1904, — again without the slightest consent, indeed, to the great annoyance, of K i t t e n b e r g e r —-he put the name K i t t e n b e r g e r in parentheses after that of K a t o n a , and finally, at least in nomenclature, he omitted i t completely. K i t t e n b e r g e r protested verbally against this arbitrary use many times, yet without results. He affirmed in vain that, in spite of his name of a German origin, he is a Hungarian, he does not even speak German, and that people are German or Hungarian not according to their names but to their feelings, H o r v á t h , as I have indubitably established on the basis of the data of the official Museum archives, was the more stubborn, even though he thought highly of K i t t e n b e r g e r and also recognized and appreciated his work. And he not only let the name K a t o n a instead of K i t t e n b e r g e r be written in inventory books and on several labels, but even tried to make others christen the animals in his honor by this name. K i t t e n b e r g e r considered this procedure rather disgusting instead of honorable, and though he was everything but vain, —• indeed he could be characterized by an infinite modesty, — he used to mention bitterly his debates with Ho r v á t h, whenever the case cropped up during conversations. And he was absolutely right, since his honest family surname was regarded abroad many times as the locality designation of a captured animal, and those uninformed still consider i t as such.

I n the relevant literature on the East African animal material therefore, the names K i t t e n b e r g e r and K a t o n a designate the one and same collector, that is, the discoverer: Kálmán K i t t e n b e r g e r . Whenever we meet the name K a t o n a in the names of East African animals or on locality labels, we have to refer i t always to K i t t e n b e r g e r . Unfortu­nately, the mandatory rules of international nomenclature prevent us to alter this situation, and we can only alleviate now this iniquity to a certain degree even i f we are unable to con­ciliate him any more.

I t is known also in narrow circles only that everything I have marshalled up to now to illustrate the activities and East African research work of K i t ­t e n b e r g e r present but a partial picture of the t r u th . I t is an impossible endeavour to attain completeness i n this short commemoration, nor could I strive to do this i n the present situation arising from the events of 1956 : a considerable portion of his vertebrate animals, w i t h the exception of the mammals, was wholly annihilated, and even the invertebrate collections forbid a complete survey.

K i t t e n b e r g e r , i n reality, collected much more than is apparent from the above data. A lot of valuable material got spoiled due to the di f f i ­culties and lengthiness of transportation, especially in 1912 and i n 1914, at the time of his interning, when all of his equipment and collectings, — and, as he mentioned several times, the most valuable ones he ever collected — were confiscated by the English colonial authorities. And , last but not least, we have to consider the circumstance that a great portion of his material is, as I have referred to i t repeatedly, st i l l unworked-out. Nor do we dispose of any exact information about his materials received by foreign museums.

Even so, and i n spite of these deficiencies, I th ink I have succeeded to show that his work meant big results for the collections, and through them for science, of the Hungarian National Museum — Museum of Natural History : he collected and dispatched to our Museum a material rich in species consist­ing of 3713 vertebrates and about 57 000 invertebrates, therefore more than 60 000 specimens. I t is to be thanked to his activities, skill and diligence that, w i t h regard to quantity, his overseas material, standing after that of J . X á n-t u s and beside that of L . B i r ó , — from whose collectings we received 85 000, that is, 58 612 specimens, •—• made i t possible that the Zoological Department of the Hungarian National Museum could just ly line up to the zoological col­lections of the biggest European museums which, concerning the acquiring of overseas material, are in a much better position and dispose of more favourable possibilities.

Since, however, the value of a collection is by far not determined by the amount of material composing i t , we also should not evaluate the results of K i t t e n b e r g e r's African collectings from this point of view only, and I have to emphasize that about 300 new species, hitherto unknown to science, were found i n the material originating from him. This is what really points out its value and the zoological significance of K i t t e n b e r g e r's work. ,,The material collected and sent to us by h im has a high scientifical value and increased our knowledge of the East African fauna by numerous new dis­coveries", writes G. H o r v á t h i n a memorandum in 1906. Yet , at that time, the connections of the Museum and Kittenberger locked back for a few years only!

Today, and i n the knowledge of much more significant results as well as from a historical perspective, we are i n a far more favourable position to strike the balance of his activities and to state, on this base, that he rendered valuable service not only for his country but also for international science. His huntings i n Africa, his research work and observations mean a priceless increase of universal culture both from a Hungarian and from a worldwide point of view. The nearly 40 animal species, named in his honor, jus t ly immortalize his name, and that more endurably than marble. His congenial figure radiating a noble modesty could have vanished from our circle forever, but the memory of his love of Nature, his example, and mainly his work can never be forgotten either by the Museum or by science.

Bibliography: K i t t e n b e r g e r , K . : Vadász- és gyűjtőutam Kelet-Afrikában 1903—1926 (Budapest, 1927). K i t t e n b e r g e r , K . : A megváltozott Afrika (Budapest, 1930). K i t t e n b e r g e r , K . : Vadászkalandok Afrikában (Budapest, 1955). K i t t e n ­b e r g e r , K . : A Kilima-Ndzsarótó] Nag\maro?ig (Budapest, 1956). — Ann. Hist.-nat. Mus. Nat. Hung. 1904, 1911, 1912, 1941, 1947). — Arch. Zool. (1909). — Ann. Mus. Congo Zool. (1951). — Acta Zool. (1954). — Arch, für Naturgeschichte (1920. — Rev. Biol. Colon. 1941. — Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr. (1912, 1954). — Ornithologische Monatsberichte (1904).

Калман Киттенбергер и Музей Естесвенной Истории

И. Борош, Будапешт

(РЕЗЮМЕ)

Калман К и т т е н б е р г е р , известный охотник па африканских крупных зверей, умер 4-го января 1958 года в 76 летнем возрасте. По поводу его смерти автор посвящает ему данную статью, упоминая его как исследователя восточно-африканского животного мира. Излагаются те данные, которые в результате охот и исследований К и т т е н б е р г е р а в Африке обогатили не только коллекции Музея Естественной Истории, но и науку.

К и т т е н б е р г е р был шесть раз в Восточной Африке и часто далеко от своей родины несколько лет подряд собирал материалы и охотился в дев­ственных лесах Килиманджаро, в степях и саваннах в окрестности этого гор­ного массива, далее в степи восточного побережья озера Виктория-Ньянца и в Уганде, в дремучих лесах, окружающих горный массив Рувензори. Будучи при­рожденным естествоиспытателем, он, наряду со своими прекрасными наблю­дениями, предоставил в распоряжение Музею естествоведения собранный материал, который представляет собой большую ценность для науки. Он обога­тил венгерские коллекции 213 большей частью крупными млекопитающими, 2500 птицами, 1000 пресмыкающимися и земноводными, 26 000 экземплярами жуков, 12—13 000 клопами и цикадовыми, 6600 перепончатокрылыми, 7000 мухами, свыше 2500 пауками и многочисленными низшими животными. Собран­ный им материал превышает 60 000 экземпляров, он весьма богат видами, и хотя одна часть материала еще не разработана, то в нем до сих пор были обна­ружены около 300 новых неизвестных науке видов животных. Из этих новых видов прибл. 40 носят его фамилию.

В связи с изложенным автор выясняет вопрос : почему наименованные по К и т т е н б е р г е р у виды животных называются один раз К и т т е н-б е р г е р о м , а другой раз Ка(опае, Ка1опаг и т. д.? Автор достоверно устано­вил, что бывший директор Зоологического отдела Национального музея Геза Х о р в а т , без ведома и согласия К и т т е н б е р г е р а, по тогдашнему обычаю мадьяризировал фамилию К и т т е н б е р г е р а на К а т о н а . К и т т с н -б е р г с р несколько раз протестовал против этого, но Х о р в а т , — который впрочем весьма ценил и уважал К и т т е н б е р г е р а и его деятельность,

- не хотел изменить своей шовинистической позиции, и не только в инвентар­ных книгах, но и на карточках местонахождения, заставил занести вместо К к т-т е н б е р г е р а фамилию К а т о н а . Сверх того он даже стремился угавари-вать авторов, чтобы употребилы фамилию К а т о н а .

Значит, в разрабатывающей восточноафриканский материал специальной литературе названия К и т т е н б е р г е р и К а т о н а означают одного и того же коллекционера, или же исследователя — Калмана К и т т е н б е р -г е р. Каждый раз, когда мы встречаемся в восточноафриканских названиях животных, или же на карточках местонахождения с названием К а т о н а , это следует отнести к выдающемуся сотруднику Музея Естественной Истории Венгеского национального музея — к знаменитому исследователю Африки и охотнику Калману К и т т е н б е р г е р .

2 T e r m é s z e t t u d o m á n y i Múzeum É v k ö n y v e