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

162 Phylum Vertebrata gotthárd. (See also KOVÁCS and AMBRUS 2001a.) The author ends his study with data based on oral communications from fishermen and anglers for the incidence of fish species in the Mura. Further data for the territory examined can be found in another publication on the ichthyofauna of the Szigetköz (VIDA 1993). Knowledge and distribution records for gudgeon species in Hungary have been summarized by ÁKOS HARKA (1996). A study by MIKLÓS SZINETÁR (1999) of the Rába Valley records 47 fish species occurring occasionally or regularly. His book also gives distribution records for two introduced species, the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), for which there is little information in other Hungarian waters. A college thesis by JÁNOS TŐKE (1999) summarizes the written data on the ichthyofauna of Vas County, based on species represented in the Savaria Museum and the collection of the Daniel Berzsenyi Teachers' Training College (now Dániel Berzsenyi College), both in Szombathely. He managed to gather distribution data for 60 fish species. The presence of Eurasian minnows (Phoxinus phoxinus) was indicated in the Kerca, Kerka and upper Zala rivers by KOVÁCS TIBOR and AMBRUS ANDRÁS (1999) in an article about the distribution of the mayfly Eurylophella karelica. The ichthyofaunistic working group of the NIMFEA Nature Protection Society, headed by ZOLTÁN SALLAI and KÁROLY GYÖRE, fished 77 times in 1997 and 1998 at 56 collecting points in the Rába and Zala and the area between the two. The aim was to study the ichthyofauna of all the smaller watercourses. During their studies, they registered over 17,000 specimens of 43 observed species. One new species occurrence, of the black bullhead (Ameiurus melas), was registered from the Kerka in the Mura system and another, of the brown trout (Salmo trutta m. fario), from the Zala. Of the species found, the European chub (Leuciscus cephalus), gudgeon (Gobio gobio) and stone loach (Noemacheilus barbatulus) were found in all watercourses. Six of the 15 protected fish species found in the Rába and the Mura system are endemic to the Danube basin: Gobio kessleri, Umbra krameri, Gymnocephalus baloni, G. schraetzer, Zingel zingel and Z. stréber. Unfortunately, the ichthyofauna of the two systems also includes adventive species (SALLAI and GYÖRE 1999). Many longer and shorter publications on Hungarian ichthyofauna include data on the West Hungarian border region (PINTÉR 1992). Data for the region are surprisingly rare in a publication on the fish collection at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest that represents the situation at the end of 1952 (MIHÁLYI 1954). Quantitative data on fish caught in the Rába, Rábca and Marcal in 1967-89 are given in an article by ISTVÁN MRS. FELLNER et al (1993). KÁLMÁN JANCSÓ and JÁNOS TÓTH (1987) deals with fish stocks in the Little Plain stretch of the Danube and its tributaries (the Rába, Rábca and Marcal) and includes catches in 1967-84. A summary of fish species in Burgenland has been made by FRANZE SAUERZOPF.

11 11 SAUERZOPF, F. 1965. Beitrag zur Fischfauna des Burgenlandes. Wissenschaftliche Arbeiten aus dem Burgenland 32:142-6.