296 



Percoidea, or Perch-like Fishes 



dull green in color and feeds on insects and worms. It has no 

 economic value, although extremely interesting in its anatomy 

 and relationship. 



Whether the Asineopidce, fresh-water fishes of the American 

 Eocene, and the Erismatopterida, of the same deposits (see page 

 235) are related to Aphredoderus or to Percopsis is still uncertain. 



The Pigmy Sunfishes: Elassomidae. One of the most primitive 

 groups is that of Elassomida \ or pigmy sunfi^hes. These are 



Fio. 230. Skull of the Rock Bass, Ambloplites rupestris. 



very small fishes, less than two inches long, living in the swamps 

 of the South, resembling the sunfishes, but with the number of 

 dorsal spines reduced to from three to five. Elassoma zonatum 

 occurs from southern Illinois to Louisiana . Elassoma ever- 

 gladei abounds in the Everglades of Florida. In both the body 



