EUPOMOTIS — PUMPKINSEED SUNFISH 259 



and it is not excelled as a pan-fish by any of our species, unless 

 it be the yellow perch. The greater part of the sunfish catch 

 of Ilhnois, amounting to 200,000 to 500,000 pounds a year, is 

 composed of this species. 



It spawns in May, according to our observations at Mere- 

 dosia, although Dr. Kofoid found a ripe male June|^12. 



Genus EUPOMOTIS Gill & Jordan 



PUMPKINSEED SUNFISH 



Form as in Lepomis; mouth always small; no supplemental maxillary 

 bone and no teeth on palatines; lower pharyngeals deep and broad, with 

 inferior and lateral prominences, the width of the toothed portion about 

 2 in its length ; pharyngeal teeth short with the upper surfaces bluntly rounded 

 or paved (truncate); gill-rakers short; fins rather long; red color on opercular 

 flap in typical species forming a roundish spot. Eastern United States and 

 Canada; 3 species. 



Key to Species of EUPOMOTIS found in Illinois 



a. Pectorals reaching vertical from base of last anal spine; wavy lines on checks 



faint; border of opercular flap red in male, pale in female heros. 



aa. Pectorals scarcely reaching front of anal; evident lines of emerald on cheeks; 

 opercular flap with a blood-red or orange spot at its lower posterior cor- 

 ner (white in preserved specimens) gibbosus. 



EUPOMOTIS HEROS (Baird & Gieard) 



Baird & Girard, 1854, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 25 (Pomotis). 



J. & G., 480 (Lepomis), 482 (L. notatus) ; J. & E.. I, 1007; B., I, 32; F., 67 (Lepomis 

 notatus); L., 25; R., 35. 



Length 6 to 8 inches; depth 2.1 to 2.3 in length. Color pale olive, slightly 

 mottled; opercular flap black with a wide border, which is blood-red in males, 

 pale in females. Head in length 2.7 to 3; profile not angled at nape; eye 3.7 

 to 4 in head; mouth rather small, the lower jaw but slightly projecting; max- 

 illary 3.1 to 3.3 in head; teeth present on vomer, but not on tongue or pala- 

 tines; lower pharyngeals broad, with short blunt teeth; flexible margin of 

 opercular flap fleshy; gill-rakers very short, the longest about }4 eye. Dorsal 

 X, 11, the longest spine % height of soft portion; anal III, 10; pectorals very 

 long, reaching past a vertical from base of last anal spine; ventrals past vent. 

 Scales 6, 36-40, 14 or 15; rows on cheeks about 4. 



This is a southern fish, and has occurred in our Ilhnois 

 collections only at a few points in the Wabash basin. It has 

 occurred in Indiana also, in the same stream and its tributaries, 

 and it has been lately taken in Little Eagle Lake in Kosciusko 



