232 FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



Two species: E. zonatum, widely distributed in the southern 

 United States; and E. evergladei; confined to the swamps of 

 southern Georgia and of Florida. 



ELASSOMA ZONATUM Jordan 



PIGMY SUNFISH 



Jordan, 1877, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., X, 50. 



J. & G., 461; M. v., 113; B., I, 34; J. & E., I, 982; J., 47; F., 70; L., 23. 



Length l^^ inches; body oblong, deep and compressed, the profile 

 convex; depth 3.3 to 3.6; greatest width about ^ greatest depth; depth 

 caudal peduncle 1.8 to 2 in its length. " Color olive-green, evei-ywhere finely 

 punctulate; sides with about 11 parallel vertical bands of dark olive, about 

 equal in width, narrower than the eye, about as wide as the pale interspaces; 

 a conspicuous roundish black spot, nearly as large as the eye, on the sides 

 just above the axis of the body, under the beginning of the dorsal ; soft fins 

 faintly barred; a blackish bar at base of caudal. Head 2.9 to 3, its width in 

 its length 1.8 to 1.9; interorbital space 4 to 4.3 in head; eye 3 to 3.5; nose short, 

 blunt, 5.3 to 5.8; mouth terminal, oblique, maxillary past front of orbit; 

 jaws equal. Dorsal IV to V, 9 to 10; caudal rounded; anal III, 5; ventrals 

 past vent; pectorals 1.8 to 1.9 in head. Scales 18-19, 37-39, cycloid; no lateral 

 line; cheeks and opercles scaled. 



This little fish, rare in our waters and not abundant any- 

 where, has been taken by us in only six collections, all from 

 southern Illinois, four of them from the Wabash Valley, one from 

 Running Lake, and one from a bluff spring in Union county. 

 The Wabash localities are Little Fox River at Phillipstown, 

 Wabash River at Wabash station, Drew pond in White county, 

 and Swan pond near St. Francisville. It is a southern fish,, 

 reported from North and South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, 

 and Texas. 



Family CENTRARCHID^E 



the sunfishes 



Body more or less shortened and compressed, the regions above and be- 

 low the horizontal axis about equally developed; scales usually not very 

 strongly ctenoid, in rare cases cycloid; sides of head scaly; lateral fine present; 

 skeleton osseous, anterior vertebrae simple; abdominal vertebrae from 3d or 

 4th to last with transverse processes; ventral fins thoracic, typically with 1 

 spine and 5 rays; dorsal fins confluent, the spines 6 to 13 (usually 10); anal 

 spines 3 to 9; caudal shghtly emarginate or weakly furcate; no mesocoracoid; 

 gill-membranes separate from isthmus; branchiostegals 6, rarely 7; pseudo- 

 branchiae small, nearly or quite covered by skin; gill-rakers variously formed, 

 always armed with small teeth; preopercle entire or somewhat serrate; opercle 



