Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)

157 14 PHYLUM VERTEBRATA (VERTEBRATES) CLASS CEPHALASPIDOMORPHI (LAMPREYS) KÁLMÁN VAKARCS (1939) is thought to have been the first to record the presence of the Ukrainian brook lamprey (Eudontomyzon mariae) in the West Hungarian border region. He noted 'the lamprey known as Petromyzon planen as one of the 'fish specialities' of the Szentgotthárd-Muraszombat (Murska Sobota) district. However, exact distribution data were not available at the time. JÓZSEF CSABA (1940a), in an account of the fish fauna of Csákánydoroszló, reported that Ukrainian brook lamprey had also been found in the River Rába. Its occurrence there was also mentioned in a later communication: it was found on a weis catfish (Silurus glanis) during electric fishing (GYEGINSZKY 1967) and was also reported at Szentgotthárd and Csákánydoroszló (Rába) (KOVÁCS and AMBRUS 2001a). LÁSZLÓ VARGA and BÉLA MÉSZÁROS found 30 specimens of Ukrainian brook lamprey in the Szakonyfalu Brook on May 2, 1988, preparing to spawn. They then found a further 25 on May 4 (VARGA 1991). The first record of Ukrainian brook lamprey in the part of the Mura catchment basin within Hungary was made by MIKLÓS SZINETÁR (1999). However, he only published the information several decades after the discovery: a mature specimen found on a European chub (Leuciscus cephalus) caught at Bajánsenye on the River Kerka in 19 5 3. ZOLTÁN SALLAI and KÁROLY GYÖRE (1997) were the first to report the presence of Ukrainian brook lamprey in the Hungarian parts of the Mura catchment area. The species has been found in the Mura itself only on the Slovenian side (Povz 1987), not in the Hungarian stretch of the river (SALLAI 1999). ISTVÁN BOTTA and KATALIN KERESZTESSY (1992) undertook a revision of the lamprey species found in the Carpathian Basin. Their paper also includes data on specimens in the collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest that come from the region: specimens of Ukrainian brook lamprey were collected in 1969 near Szakonyfalu by FERENC MÉSZÁROS and ISTVÁN SZABÓ. The same authors collected a mature specimen there in 1988. Other occurrences can be found in another article by KERESZTESSY (1993a) (River Kerka and Kis or Grajka Brook). Ichthyofaunistic surveys by ANTAL VIDA and associates under a research programme entitled Natural History of the Őrség

1 led them to establish that Ukrainian brook lamprey could be expected almost anywhere in the cleaner streams of the Rába and Mura catchment areas. Depending on the stage in their life cycle, mature specimens sometimes appeared in large numbers in rivers as well, normally in early spring, when the reproductive cycle begins. Specimens had 1 Az Őrség Természeti Képe.