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. fusiformis) 36 (16 +20); 

 pyloric cfceca 4f. Species few and variable; size small; colors not brilliant. 



Fig, 75 



BOLEICHTHYS FUSIFORMIS (Girard) 



Girard, 18S4, Proc. Bost. Soc. Xat. Hist., 41 (Boleosoma). 



]. & G., 51" (Paecilichthys barratti), 520 (P. fusiformis, P. erochrous and P. eos). 

 521 (P. gracilis); M. V., 134 (Etheostoma); B . I, 75 (Etheostoma); J. & E . I, 

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

 and fusiforme); L., 29. 



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

 back more or less elevated; depth 5.8 to 7. 1 in length; greatest width of 

 body about f its greatest depth ; caudal peduncle rather slender, its 

 depth 2.9 to 3 . 3 (3 . 8) in its length. Color (in preservative) olivaceous, 

 much Mulched 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 faintly 

 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 hands 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; maxillary past 

 front of orbit; (left 3.1 to 3.8 in head; jaws subequal; gill-membranes 



i ely conna ted, distant es to angle and to back of orbit aboul equal. 



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



tin 3 specimen I Aci e isions No. 28075, 111. State Lab. Xat. Hist.). 



{" Spinous dorsal in life usually bright blue.with a median crimson band" (J 1 >rdan 

 and Evermann). 



