94 FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



In two examples taken from the Illinois River at Havana in October, 

 the food was aboiit a third mollusks and, two thirds insects, the 

 latter largely larvae of May-flies and of large w^ater-beetles {Hydro- 

 phillidcE) . 



Michigan to Tennessee, Georgia, and Arkansas; especially abun- 

 dant 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 struc- 

 ture of the mouth; upper lip not protractile, greatly prolonged and closely 

 plicate; lower lip much reduced, divided into two distinct lobes, which are 

 weakly papillose, the split between the lobes extending backward to the 

 edge of the dentan,^ 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, Chicka- 

 mauga, and White (Arkansas) rivers. One species known, L. lacera 

 Jordan & Brayton, not at present known from Illinois, although not un- 

 looked for in collections from the Wabash basin. (For description see 

 Jordan & Evermann, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 47, I., p. 199.) 



Family CYPRINID^ 

 (the minnows and the carp) 



•Form varied, elongate and sub fusiform, 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; an- 

 terior vertebrae modified and provided with Weberian apparatus; fins 

 typically without spines; ventrals abdominal; no adipose fin; a mes- 

 ocoracoid arch present; gill-membranes broadly joined to isthmus; 

 pseudobranchiae 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 car- 

 nivorous (see key), but often very much longer in herbivorous and li- 

 mophagous forms; air-bladder typically present and with open duct, 

 commonlv divided into 2 more or less distinct chainbers. 



