NOTROPIS 



137 



Fig. 31 



NOTROPIS BLENNIUS (Girard) 

 (straw-colored minnow) 



Girard, 1856, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 194 (Alburnops). 



M. v., 56 (deliciosus) ; J. & E., I, 261; N., 46 (Hybopsis stramineus) ; J., 57 (Al- 

 burnops stramineus) ; F. F.,I. 6, 84 (Luxilus cornutus) ; F. 78 (stramineus) ; L., 17. 



A small pale species of rather indefinite characters, almost entirely 

 without marked distinctions of either form or color. Length 2 J 

 inches; body about equally tapered both forward and backward 

 from its deepest point, which is a little in front of a line connecting 

 first dorsal and ventral rays ; moderately compressed ; depth 4.2 to 4.8; 

 caudal peduncle rather slender, its depth 2 to 3 . 1 in its length. Color 

 very light olive above, paler below; sides silver}% with an indistinct 

 light-leaden stripe above lateral line, above and below each pore of 

 which is a black spot; belly silvery; a faint vertebral streak, broaden- 

 ing into an evident blackish blotch at front of dorsal; caudal spot 

 faint or but a trace; head olivaceous above, the 

 cheeks and opercles silvery; dorsal and caudal 

 often with some dusky; other fins pale. Head 

 small, conic, 3.8 to 4.2 in length of head and 

 body ; width of head 1 . 7 to 2 in its length ; inter- 

 orbital space 3 to 3.6 in head; eye 2.9 to 3.4, 

 usually over 3 . 2 in full-grown specimens; nose 

 bluntly conic, scarcely decun-ed, its length equal 

 to diameter of eye in adults, 3.3 to 3 . 8 in head, 

 usually about 3.5; mouth rather small, terminal, 



slightly or moderately oblique, the tip of the upper lip seeming to vary 

 in position from quite on a level with the inferior margin of the pupil to 

 even with the lower margin of the orbit; maxillary 3 . 3 to 3 . 7 in head, 

 about reaching vertical from front of orbit; jaws about equal; isthmus 

 less than pupil. Teeth 4-4, rather strongly hooked, with grinding sur- 

 faces developed on at least two or three teeth ; intestine . 9 to 1.2 times 

 length of head and body; peritoneum rnore or less densely sprinkled 

 with rather large and coarse black specks. Dorsal fin with 8 rays 

 (rarley 7), inserted almost directly over, or slightly in advance of , ven- 

 trals, and usually almost exactly equidistant between muzzle and base 

 of caudal ; longest dorsal ray 1 . i to 1.3 in head ; anal rays 7 (rarely 6) ; 



Fig. 32 



