Researchers at the Plant Protection Institute of the HUN-REN Centre for Agricultural Research (HUN-REN CAR) have named three new animal species after Sándor Petőfi (1823–1849), the national poet of Hungary, to commemorate the bicentenary of his birth.
Researchers at the Plant Protection Institute of HUN-REN CAR dedicated three new animal species to Sándor Petőfi, probably the most famous Hungarian poet, to commemorate the bicentenary of his birth.
The first new species is a soil-dwelling mite collected in Singapore that was named Micherdzinskiiobovella petofii Kontschán & Ermilov, 2023. In addition to the description of the new species, the genus Micherdzinskiiobovella was also revised in the framework of an international collaboration.
The second species was given the name Geocoris (Piocoris) petofii Kóbor, 2023, and it is the first representative of the big-eyed bug subgenus Piocoris in Madagascar. Based on current data it is believed to be an endemic species to the tropical forests of that island.
The third species is a fossil land snail, which was named Ferussina petofiana Páll-Gergely, 2023. The single known specimen of that species was collected in Late Cretaceous layers in the Hațeg-basin (Romania) during expeditions of the Eötvös Loránd University. This snail species lived approximately 71 million years ago on the Hațeg Island, which was found in the Tethys Sea, being world-famous due to the numerous dinosaur and pterosaur fossils found there in the last century. The newly discovered land snail species is peculiar due to its shell shape. Namely, the last whorl turns towards the apex of the shell and as a result, the snail probably carried its shell in an inverted manner, as illustrated in Márton Zsoldos's artistic interpretation.
A: Micherdzinskiiobovella petofii dorsal view, B: Micherdzinskiiobovella petofii ventral view, C: Geocoris (Piocoris) petofii dorsal view, D: different views of Ferussina petofiana
Petőfi visited Hațeg on 14 April 1849 and even wrote a poem there titled Vajdahunyadon (translated as "At Hunedoara"). While this poem primarily refers to the important Medieval historical figure from Transylvania, János Hunyadi, and the Retezat Mountains, reading some of its lines it evokes a sense that Petőfi might have anticipated the discovery of a fossil site – "From where I’m staring at the past, It is hidden away from the world, This sacred solitude; none can see into it, Except from a distance with its white head, The mountain' forefather, the ancient Retyezát."
Artistic reconstruction of Ferussina petofiana by Márton Zsoldos
Publications:
https://ojs3.mtak.hu/index.php/actazool/article/view/11250
https://ojs3.mtak.hu/index.php/actazool/article/view/11111
https://ojs3.mtak.hu/index.php/actazool/article/view/11226