Oriental or not: First record of an alien weatherfish (Misgurnus) species in Austria verified by molecular data

Weatherfishes of the genus Misgurnus are natively distributed across large parts of Eurasia. Since the end of the 20th century, two alien weatherfish species, the oriental weatherfish, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, and the large scaled loach, Paramisgurnus dabryanus, have been reported from Europe. Here, we provide a first record of alien Misgurnus for Austria (Inn river). Based on morphology and DNA barcoding in combination with sequences of the nuclear RAG1 gene we found that this alien Austrian weatherfish is neither M. anguillicaudatus nor P. dabryanus, but Misgurnus bipartitus, the northern weatherfish. Fish from further upstream the Inn in Germany, previously identified as M. anguillicaudatus, share their COI haplotype with the Austrian samples and other M. bipartitus, suggesting a misidentification of these German fishes and raising alarm that alien Misgurnus might be already present across large parts of the middle and lower Inn drainage.