FAMILY CYPRINIDAE 151 



about 37 scales in the lateral line. The pharyngeal teeth are 4 — 4. This 

 minnow reaches a length of 2 1/2 inches. 



The speckled dace ranges from southern Minnesota and Ohio to 

 Alabama. Cox (1897) reported this species from Blue Earth River at 

 Mankato. Several specimens in the University of Minnesota collections 

 are from a slough near Winona (1900) . Greene reports this species from 

 the Mississippi below La Crosse. 



GENUS Erimystax Jordan 



SPOTTED CHUB 



Erimystax dissimilis (Kirtland) 



The spotted chub is a slender minnow, olivaceous in color with 

 silvery sides marked with a bluish lateral band more or less broken 

 into blotches. The back and sides are marked with x-shaped splotches. 

 The head is blunt with the mouth slightly inferior. The teeth are 4 — 4. 

 The scales are 5-6; 38-47; 4-5, with 14-17 rows behind the dorsal fin. 

 A barbel, shorter than the diameter of the eye, is on the maxillary. 



The spotted chub ranges from Lake Erie to the Ohio River drainage 

 exclusive of the Tennessee and Cumberland portion, and west to 

 Arkansas, northeastern Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas, central Iowa, 

 and southern Minnesota. The only Minnesota record is from specimens 

 collected in 1945 by the Minnesota Department of Conservation from 

 the Root River in Fillmore County. 



GENUS Rhinichthys Agassiz 



WESTERN BLACKNOSE DACE (Striped Dace) 

 Rhinichthys atratulus meleagris Agassiz 



This minnow (Figure 25D) is similar in form to the following species, 

 R. cataractae cataractae, but the snout does not extend far beyond the 

 mouth. The barbels are small or absent. The dorsal fin has 7 rays. The 

 body is dusky, splotched with black; the belly is silvery. Breeding males 

 have bright red sides. 



The western blacknose dace ranges from Lake of the Woods to Ohio 

 and southward to the Ohio Valley, Iowa, and Nebraska. It is confined 

 mostly to the Great Lakes and the Upper Mississippi drainages. Collec- 

 tions at the University of Minnesota show this species to be rather 

 common in clear brooks in northern and eastern Minnesota. It occurs 

 occasionally in lakes and large rivers. 



Evermann and Latimer (1910) reported it as more common than 

 Rhinichthys cataractae in Rapid River and Falls River in the Lake of 

 the Woods drainage. Cox (1897) found it common in lakes and streams 



