LIFE HISTORY AND ECOLOGY OF THE ORANGE-SFOTTED 

 SUNFISH, LEPOMIS HUMILIS/ 



By K. L. Barney, Director, and B. J. Anson, formerly Scientific Assistant, 

 U. S. Fisheries Biological Laboratory, Fairport, loxca. 



Contribution from the U. S. Fisheries Biological Station, Fairport, Iowa. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Ecology :.* 



Sexes i> 



Breeding season 4 



Tlie nest and spawning habits 5 



Growth and attainment of sexual 



maturity 7 



Page. 

 Food 10 



Value of the orange-spotted sunflsh_ VI 



Summary 14 



Bibliography 15 



INTRODUCTION. 



The orange-spotted or red-spotted sunfish, Lepomis humilis 

 (Girard), is a small, highly colored centrarchid of wide distribution. 

 It is found throughout the Mississippi drainage, being recorded par- 

 ticularW from Ohio, Indiana (Hay, 1894), Illinois (Forbes and 

 Richardson, 1908), Minnesota (Cox,l89T), and the Dakotas, Kansas 

 (Cope, 1868), southward to Kentucky (Jordan and Evermann, 

 1896), Arkansas (Girard, 1857), Louisiana, and Texas. It is espe- 

 cially abundant in small sandy streams of the lower Missouri basin 

 (Jordan and Evermann, 1896) and is well adapted to both stream 

 and pond life, in which it is possibly of considerable significance in 

 the economy of the habitat. 



The fish was originally described by Girard (1857) in 1857 from 

 specimens taken ft-om Sugar Loaf Creek in Arkansas under the 

 name Bryttus humilis. Cope (1865) in 1865 described a sunfish 

 from Lake "Whittlesey, Minn., very similar to the present Lepomis 

 Jiumilis^ but called it Bryttus ocuJatus. In 1868 he (Cope, 1868) 

 described the species L. anagaJlinus from Leavenworth, Kans. In 

 1876 Nelson (1876) studying Illinois specimens called the fish 

 Ichthelis anngaUinus; in 1878 Jordan (1878) changed the generic 

 name to Lepiopomus. Jordan and Gilbert (1882), in their " Syn- 

 nopsis of the fishes of North America," recognized the above- 



' Appendix XV to the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries for 1922. B. F. 

 Doc. No. 938. 



- The authors gratefully acknowledge the suggestions and criticisms of Dr. R. E. Coker 

 and the assistance given by H. L. Canfleld in bringing to their attention certain material 

 discussed herewith. The photographs accompanying this report were made by J. B. 

 Southall, the graphs by H. G. Gould. 



