310 



FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



and in the so-called variety spectabile*; back with 7 or 8 rather obscure 

 quadrate blotches; sides of males with 11 or 12 bars of dark indigo-blue 

 color, the interspaces between the bars blood-orange, brightest back- 

 ward, as are also the indigo bars; head flesh-color, with lavender on chin 

 and yellow to orange on opercles; forehead and top of snout dull bluish 

 black; a blue splash below eye and a dark spot behind it; spinous dorsal 

 crossed at its middle by a row of orange-red spots in an orange band; 

 above and below this a pale to deep indigo-blue band; at base of fin a 

 narrow band of orange with a central row of orange-red spots. Females 

 duller in color than the males, the bars dusky and interspaces olive; 

 spinous dorsal with a narrow outer edging of pale blue, next to which is 

 a straw-colored band with a row of rust-colored spots, in place of the 

 orange of male. Head large, 3 . 6 to 4 in length, the profile in males a 

 broad and practically continuous curve from front of dorsal to tip of 

 snout ; females with nape angled ; width of head 1 . 7 to 2 . 1 in its length ; 

 interorbital space flat, about § of eye, 5.8 to 7.2 in head; eye nearly 

 round, 3.7 to 4.1; mouth moderate, terminal, somewhat oblique, tip 

 of upper lip nearer to floor of orbit than base of chin; lips rather large, 

 upper with great lateral depth when closed; maxillary reaching to front 

 of orbit; cleft 3 to 3.5; jaws subequal; gill-membranes scarcely con- 

 nected, distances to angle and to back of orbit about equal. Dorsal 

 fin X (or XI), 12-14; spinous and soft portions scarcely separated, or 

 slightly connected at base; height of first dorsal 2.1 to 2.7 in head, 

 second 1.5 to 1.9 (height of first 68 to 83 per cent, of second) ; caudal 

 truncate; anal II, 7 or 8 (occasionally 6); pectorals 1 to 1.2 in head; 

 separation of ventrals usually about J their width at base. Scales 6, 

 44-51, 7 or 8, occasionally 6 [9 or 10]; lateral line flexed slightly up- 

 ward anteriorly, 15 to 20 pores usually lacking; cheeks naked; opercles 

 scaled; nape scaled posteriorly, usually naked in a small patch next to 

 occiput; breast naked; belly covered with ordinary scales. 



The rainbow darter, one of the most brilliant of its group and 

 closely allied to Etheostoma jessice, is less abundant in this state than 

 that species — occurring in 99 of our collections to 161 of the other — ■ 

 and differs widely from it in local distribution also, especially in an 



*E. cceruleum spectabile (Agassiz), Jordan & Evermann, 1896, Bull. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus.,No. 47, Pt. I., p. 1089. 



