The Carp Suckers 



a length of 3 feet. It is found in all the larger rivers of the 

 Mississippi Basin and in some of the small lakes, where its 

 habits are essentially the same as those of the big-mouthed buffalo, 

 the latter species, however, being less ol a bottom feeder than either 

 of the two others here described. In the South all three species 

 spawn in March and April; as we go northward the spawning 

 season is correspondingly later, it being in May and June in 

 Minnesota and Wisconsin. 



Head 4; depth 2|; snout 3^; eye 5; D. 28 or 29; A. 10 or 

 ii ; V. 10; scales 8 or 9-35 to 39-5 or 6, 12 or 13 before the 

 dorsal. Body short and compressed, the dorsal strongly arched 

 and subcarinate from occiput to origin of dorsal fin; ventral out- 

 line only slightly convex; head small; mouth small, subinferior, 

 and protractile downward; lips papillose; opercle strongly striate; 

 caudal peduncle deep and compressed, its least depth if in 

 head; axis of body above the ventrals, below the lateral line, 

 and nearly twice as far from back as from belly; fins moderate, 

 the first 7 or 8 dorsal rays lengthened, as long as head, rays 

 of short portion 3^ in head; longest anal ray i^; pectoral short, 

 not reaching base of ventral, if in head; ventrals longer, i.i in 

 head; caudal deeply lunate, the lobes longer than head. Colour, 

 pale, almost silvery; fins scarcely dusky. 



Ictiobiis meridionalis is a southern species known only from 

 the Rio Usumacinta, Mexico. 



GENUS CARPIODES RAFINESOUE 

 The Carp Suckers 



This genus is very close to Ictiobus, the species being smaller, 

 the colour paler, and the dentition weaker, but there are no im- 

 portant technical characters separating the two groups. 



Of the five species referred to under this genus, one occurs 

 in the Potomac and Delaware and the streams about Chesapeake 

 Bay, one in the St. Lawrence basin, and the other three in the 

 Mississippi Valley and Texas. Only two of the species are of 

 any commercial value. 



a. Body subfusiform, the depth about 3 in length; carpio, 42 



aa. Body ovate-oblong, the back elevated, the depth about 2\ in 

 length. 



41 



