FAMILY AMEIURIDAE 181 



olive to dark brownish, without noticeable speckling. There are three 

 dark streaks on the sides. The adipose fin is continuous with the caudal. 

 The premaxillary bands of teeth are truncate laterally and without 

 backward lateral extensions. The pectoral spines are smooth and un- 

 serrated. The species reaches a length of 3 to 5 inches. Hubbs and 

 Raney (1944) have shown that the former name of the tadpole mad- 

 tom, Schilbeodes gyrinus (Mitchill) should be replaced by Schilbeodes 

 mollis (Hermann) . 



The tadpole madtom ranges from North Dakota to New York and 

 southward as far as Texas and Florida. It is common in both the 

 Upper Mississippi and the Red River drainages in Minnesota and is 

 probably often mistaken by local fishermen for the young of the bull- 



Figure 29. Tadpole madtom, Schilbeodes mollis, 3 inches long. 



heads. It has been collected in the St. Louis River in the Lake Superior 

 drainage. It seems to prefer still, muddy waters where it can hide under 

 vegetation and debris. In 1911 H. Walton Clark and Surber found it 

 in the sloughs of the Mississippi River near Muscatine. Iowa, where 

 it was often found in dead mussel shells. It is occasionally found along 

 weedy lake shores and is very abundant in sluggish, shallow, weedy 

 streams in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. It is very common in Lake 

 Itasca at the headwaters of the Mississippi River. 



According to Forbes and Richardson (1908) the tadpole madtom. 

 like other species of this genus, is provided with poison glands, which 

 are just beneath the epidermis surrounding the spines of the pectoral 

 and dorsal fins; these glands are ductless and the poison they secrete is 

 liberated only when the epidermis of the spine is torn. The wound from 

 these spines is quite as painful as a bee's sting. None of the madtoms 

 are of any importance as food fishes, but owing to their tenacity of life 

 they are said to serve as excellent bait for black bass. They are seldom 

 found in the stomachs of anv other fishes. 



