BOLEICHTHYS 315 



Genus BOLEICHTHYS Girard 



Darters separated doubtfully from Etheostoma, from which genus 

 they differ alone in the more noticeable upward flexure* of the lateral 

 line anteriorly; premaxillaries non-protractile, as in Etheostoma, and 

 cranium U-shaped, as in that genus; vertebrae (B. jusijormis) 36 (16 -1-20) ; 

 pyloric caeca 4t . Species few and variable ; size small ; colors not brilliant. 



Fig. 75 



BOLEICHTHYS FUSIFORMIS (Girard) 



Girard, 1854, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 41 (Boleosoma). 



J. & G., 519 (Poecilichthys barratti), 520 (P, fusiformis, P. erochrous and P. eos), 

 521 (P. gracilis); M. V., 134 (Etheostoma); B., I, 7 5 (Etheostoma); J. & E., I, 

 1101; N., 34 (exilis, eos, etc.); J., 42 (eos), 43 (elegans); F.,64 (Etheostoma eos 

 and fusiforme); L., 29. 



Length 2 to 2^ inches; body moderately elongate, compressed, the 

 back more or less elevated ; depth 5 . 8 to 7 . 1 in length ; greatest width of 

 body about | its greatest depth: caudal peduncle rather slender, its 

 depth 2 . 9 to 3 . 3 (3 . 8) in its length. Color (in preservative) olivaceous, 

 much blotched and dotted with brown, the dark color often in more or 

 less definite W- and X-shaped markings, though more often in vaguely 

 defined zigzag streaks and rusty splotches; a black band in front of eye 

 on snout and a dark blotch behind eye; suborbital streak faint; spinous 

 faintly dusky in membranes near base; soft dorsal and caudal fainth^ 

 barred. Males are in general darker, with usually 9 or 10 transverse bars 

 of dusky on sides in breeding season ; basal third of membranes of spinous 

 dorsal jet-black, and the fin edged with dusky; between these bands on 

 spinous dorsal a row of elongate-roundish pale blotches (crimson| in life). 

 Head 3.5 to 4.1 in length, bluntly pointed, the muzzle somewhat 

 decurved; nape scarcely angled, if at all; interorbital space 5.5 to 6.9 in 

 head; eye round, 3.5 to 4; nose 4.3 to 5.2; mouth subterminal, slightly 

 oblique, tip of upper lip scarcely to lower margin of orbit; maxillar}^ past 

 front of orbit; cleft 3.1 to 3 . 8 in head; jaws subequal; gill-membranes 

 scarcely connected, distances to angle and to back of orbit about equal. 



*See preceding description of Etheostoma jessice; also description of B. fusiformis. 



fin 3 specimens (Accessions No. 28075, 111. State Lab. Nat. Hist.). 



J" Spinous dorsal in life usually bright blue, with a median crimson band" (Jordan 

 and Evermann). 



