478 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



tempts have been made to subdivide the group, but the char- 

 acters used, drawn from the pharyngeals, gill rakers, palatine 

 teeth, and pectoral fins, are themselves subject to variation, 

 changing or disappearing by degrees without marked gaps. 



238 Lepomis auritus (Linnaeus) 



Long-eared Sun fish 



Labnts auritus LINNAEUS, Syst. Nat. ed. X, I, 283, 1758, Philadelphia, Pa. 

 Labrus appendix MITCHILL, Am. Month. Mag. II, 247, February, 1818. 

 Pomotis appendix DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 32, 1842, from MITCHILL; 



STOKER. Hist. Fish. Mass. 14, pi. Ill, fig. 4, 1867. 

 Pomotis rubricauda STOKER, Bost. Jour. Nat. Hist. IV, 177, 1842, Concord, 



N. H.; GUNTHER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. I, 262, 1859. 

 Lepomis elongatus and mysiacalis JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. 



Mus. 475, 1883. 

 Lepomis auritus JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 477, 18S3; 



BEAN. Fishes Penna. 113, pi. 31, fig. 63, 1893; JORDAN & EVERMANN, 



Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 1001, 1896, pi. CLXIX, figs. 425, 425a, 1900; 



MEARNS, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist, X, 319, 1898; EUGENE SMITH, Proc. 



Linn. Soc. N. Y. 1897, 34, 1898. 



The long-eared sunfish has an oblong, moderately elongate 

 body, its depth nearly one half of the length without the caudal 

 and its thickness a little more than one third of its depth. The 

 caudal peduncle is moderately short, its least depth three 

 fourths of its length and one third of greatest depth of body. 

 The head is rather large, its length without the flap one third 

 of the total without caudal, its width one half of its length. 

 The space between the eyes is convex, its width a little more 

 than the length of the snout, which is two ninths as long as the 

 head including the flap. The upper edge of the snout is oblique. 

 The eye is one fourth as long as the head without the flap. 

 The mouth is moderate in size, the maxilla not very broadly ex- 

 panded behind and extending to below the front of the pupil. 

 The scales on the cheeks are very small, in about eight rows. 

 The opercular flap is long, narrow and pointed, its length equal 

 to that of the snout and about twice its width. The gill rakers 

 are short and stout, about 11 developed on the first arch, the 

 longest one third as long as the eye. The spinous dorsal begins 

 over the sixth scale of the lateral line; its base is two sevenths 

 of total length without caudal; the first spine is two thirds as 



