94 FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



the number of specimens available for our examination has been 

 too small to test this supposition. In two examples taken from 

 the Illinois River at Havana in October, the food was about a 

 third moUusks and two thirds insects, the latter largely larvae 

 of May-flies and of large water-beetles (Hydrophillidce) . 



Michigan to Tennessee, Georgia, and Arkansas; especially 

 abundant in the Ozark region and in the French Broad River 

 basin. Rare in Illinois; one specimen from the Wabash; two 

 specimens from the Illinois; and two or three others from 

 localities unknown. 



Genus LAGOCHILA Jordan & Brayton 



rabbit-mouth sucker 



Suckers in all respects like Moxostoma except for the singular structure 

 of the mouth; upper hp not protractile, greatly prolonged and closely plicate; 

 lower Up much reduced, divided into two distinct lobes, which are weakly 

 papillose, the split between the lobes extending backward to the edge of the 

 dentary bones; lower lip entirely separated from upper at angles by a deep 

 fissure, which is mostly covered by the skin of the cheeks. Ozark region, 

 Wabash, Clinch, Scioto, Cumberland, Chickamauga, and White (Arkansas) 

 rivers. One species known, L. lacera Jordan & Brayton, not at present known 

 from Illinois, although not unlooked for in collections from the Wabash basin. 

 (For description see Jordan & Evermann, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 47, 

 I., p. 199.) 



Family CYPRINID-ffi 



THE MINNOWS AND THE CARP 



Form varied, elongate and subfusiform, more or less compressed, or 

 sometimes thin and deep; head naked; body scaly, except in a few forms 

 not occurring in the United States; scales cycloid; skeleton osseous; anterior 

 vertebrae modified and provided with Weberian apparatus; fins typically 

 without spines; ventrals abdominal; no adipose fin; a mesocoracoid arch 

 present; gill-membranes broadly joined to isthmus; pseudobranchise usually 

 present; branchiostegals 3; margin of upper jaw formed by premaxillaries 

 alone; jaws toothless; lower pharyngeal bones well developed, falciform, and 

 nearly parallel with the gill-arches, each armed with 1 to 3 series of teeth, 

 4 to 7 in the main row, and a less number in the others, if more rows are 

 present; stomach without appendages, being a simple enlargement of the 

 intestine; intestinal canal short or long, usually less than twice length of 

 body in species partly or wholly carnivorous (see key), but often very much 

 longer in herbivorous and limophagous forms; air-bladder typically present 

 and with open duct, commonly divided into 2 more or less distinct chambers 



