232 FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



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

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

 ern 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 \h inches; body oblong, deep and compressed, the profile 

 convex; depth ?> .?> to 3.6; greatest width about h greatest depth; depth 

 caudal peduncle 1.8 to 2 in its length. "Color olive-green, everywhere 

 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 be- 

 ginning 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. Dor- 

 sal 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, rart in our waters and not abundant anywhere, 

 has been taken by us in only six collections, all from southern Illi- 

 nois, four of them from the Wabash Valley, one from Running Lake, 

 and one from a bluff spring in Union county. The Wabash locali- 

 ties are Little Fox River at Phillipstown, Wabash River at Wabash 

 station. Drew pond in White county, and Swan pond near St. Fran- 

 cisville. It is a southern fish, reported from North and South Caro- 

 lina, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. 



Family CENTRARCHID.E 



(the sunfishes) 



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

 below the horizontal axis about equally developed; scales usually not 

 ver\^ strongly ctenoid, in rare cases cycloid ; sides of head scaly ; lateral line 

 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 slightly emarginate or weakly 

 furcate; no mesocoracoid; gill-membranes separate from isthmus; 



