Phoxinus lumaireul (Schinz, 1840)

Alexander, Timothy & Seehausen, Ole, 2021, Diversity, distribution and community composition of fish in perialpine lakes – “ Projet Lac ” synthesis report, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology : 127

South of the Alps, the expected Italian minnow,

P. lumaireul

was recorded by Projet Lac only in Lake Garda. No Phoxinus were recorded in the other northern Italian and Ticino lakes. Barcoding of some individuals caught in Progetto Fiumi in the Ticino River near Breggia and La Spiagetta did confirm the presence of P. lumaireul in the Swiss Po drainage, but other Progetto Fiumi samples from theTicino River near Breggia, turned out to be a northcentral European taxon, informally referred to as Phoxinus sp. “morella” [147]. These are almost certainly due to translocation from northern central Europe to Ticino.The true remaining distribution of P. lumaireul in Ticino and its interaction with other Phoxinus taxa will need to be addressed in future projects.

Surprisingly too, some samples from a tributary of Lake Geneva (Stockalper Canal; Rhone drainage) were identified as P. lumaireul , implying that three different lineages currently co-occur in the Lake Geneva region ( P. csikii , P. septimaniae , P. lumaireul ). P. lumaireul has most likely been translocated to Lake Geneva from the southern Alps by humans. It is important to emphasize that Phoxinus phoxinus , previously thought to be the common minnow in the northern prealpine region, was not recorded at all in Projet Lac (nor in Progetto Fiumi).