Language: English
From the preface:
"Hungary represents the only country in the World where continuous earthworm research has been carried out from the end of the 19th century till now. This 120 years of faunistic and taxonomic research have required a summary for a long time, but publishing a comprehensive book depends on at least three conditions; the scientific background, willingness to write a book and the financial support. However, these three conditions are rarely given simultaneously. This is the reason why a book on Hungarian earthworms is still missing, whilst all the surrounding countries have published their own faunistic work. Today, it seems that all the conditions are fulfilled. The material is given, the huge collection of the second author, result of 50 years of activity, contains some 35,000 specimens from almost 1000 different localities across the country. The beginning of the new millennium (and the 75th birthday of the second author) mentally forced us to summarize our research done on the Hungarian earthworms. And last, the financial support from different organizations made it possible to publish our results."