LEPOMIS — SUNFISHES 253 



and in southern Michigan. Nothing is on record concerning 

 its habits or its hfe history. 



LEPOMIS MINIATUS Joedai^ 



(Map LXXV) 



Jordan, 1877, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., X, 26. 



J. & G., 476; F. F., II. 2, 135 (garmani); M. V., 119 (garmani); B., I, 24 (auritus 

 [part]), 27 (garmani); J. & E., I, 1002 (also garmani); L., 24 (garmani). 



Length 4 inches; body rather short and deep, usually more or less 

 regularly elliptical; variously robust or rather thin; (lepth 1.8 to 2 in length, 

 usually about 2 in adults. Color dark olive; sides below lateral line striped 

 with rows of bronze or purplish spots, the rows about 7 or 8 in number; under 

 parts light, with some brassy luster; upper part of head almost black; cheeks 

 dark bluish green; ear-flap black, its upper and lower margin silvery, some- 

 times a posterior edging of pale; outer third of soft dorsal and anal reddish 

 brown with narrow edging of paler; caudal reddish behind, with faint pale 

 edging; iris red before and behind pupil. Head 2.9 to 3.1 in length; profile 

 usually with a more or less decided depression at nape, sometimes almost 

 straight; eye 3.9 to 4.3 in head; mouth smaller than in preceding species, 

 maxillary 2.5 to 3 in head, usually about 2.7 reaching but a little past front 

 of orbit; a small supplemental maxillary bone; teeth present on vomers and 

 palatines; lower pharyngeals narrow but heavy, the teeth long but blunt; 

 operculum short and broadly rounded behind, its membranous margin broad 

 and fleshy; gill-rakers stout and short, about 3^ diameter of eye. Dorsal 

 X, 10 or 11; the spines variable, usually rather low, longest 1.9 to 2.7 in 

 head; anal III, 8 to 10; pectorals variable, always considerably shorter than 

 head, sometimes but slightly longer than to back of cheek in adults; their 

 length 1.2 to 1.6 in length of head; ventrals always extending to vent, some- 

 times to anal. Scales 5, 34-41, 13 or 14, the number in the lateral Hne usually 

 nearer 40 than 34; 4 or 5 rows on cheek. 



A comparatively rare sunfish, taken by us but twenty-four 

 times, and mostly from the bottom-land lakes and ponds of the 

 Illinois River. We have collected it also from two localities 

 on the Wabash, from one on the Mississippi in Hancock county, 

 and from one on a branch of the Kankakee. It is evidently a 

 southern species, ranging to Florida and Louisiana, and it is not 

 reported by Hay or Osburn in listing the fishes of Indiana or 

 Ohio. It is said to be common in some streams of Texas. 

 Specimens taken by the senior author in 1880 and 1885 from t'he 

 Little Fox River at Phillipstown, in White county, and from the 

 Wabash River and Drew pond, near Carmi, were described 

 under the name of Lepomis garmani. 



Females with mature ova, and spawning or about to spawn, 

 were caught by Dr. Kofoid May 18, 1896, and Craig reported it 

 apparently spawning between the 20th and the 30th of May, 1898 



