of adjacent states but as yet unrecorded from Illinois. (Be- 

 cause of the extreme narrowness of marginal Vermillion 

 County, Indiana, and Livingston County, Kentucky, the 

 adjacent counties — Fountain and Parke in Indiana and 

 Marshall in Kentucky — are also regarded as marginal to 

 Illinois. ) When recent records for these problematical 

 species are extant in the Illinois Natural Hisrory Survey 

 collections, they are indicated by the initials INHS. Some of 

 the species now believed extirpated will likely be redis- 

 covered in Illinois, and some of the species known in mar- 

 ginal counties of adjoining states will probably be found 

 within our boundaries; others listed as problematical prob- 

 ably will not be found, but it is hoped that the appearance 

 of their names in this paper will stimulate search for them. 

 Additional information on the status of any of these species 

 will be provided upon request. 



The following names, all currently valid and applied 

 to species that do not occur in Illinois, found their way 

 into the older Illinois check lists through misapplication 

 of names, through misidentification of specimens, or through 

 unfounded predictions that certain species might be found 

 to occur in the state: Salmo salar, Chrosomus neogaeus, 

 Hybopsis dtssifnilis, Notropis analostanus, Notropis ardens, 

 Notropis galactnri/s, Notropis pilsbryi, Phencicohius teretti- 

 lns. Semotilns corpnralis. Lagochila Licera, Moxostoma 

 breiiceps, Ictiiluriis caun. Noturns insignis, Gambusia 

 nobilis. Lepojnii aiiritiis. Etheostoma fnsifor?ne. Etheosloma 

 jessiae. Etheostoma tippecanoe. and Etheostoma variatum. 

 With the present state of our knowledge, all of them can 

 be deleted from the list of Illinois fishes. 



DESIDERATA 



Since this paper is a progress report, criticisms and 

 efforts to make obsolete the information presented in it 

 are earnestly solicited. However, documentation in the 

 form of preserved specimens accompanied by full col- 

 lecting data is requested for any recommended revision or 

 emendation of information contained in the present list. 



Scientific collecting permits to take fishes by minnow 

 seine must be secured annually from the Illinois Depart- 

 ment of Conservation, Springfield. Fishes collected should 

 be dropped into approximatelly 10' i formalin while they 

 are still alive. Generally those under 10 inches in length 

 need no further care; larger specimens should have a small 

 slit alongside the belly to enable preservative to enter the 

 body cavity. Each collection should have a label, written in 

 pencil or waterproof ink on good bond paper, giving the 

 following essentials: name of stream or lake, exact dis- 

 tance and direction from nearest town, name of county and 

 state, date of collection, and name of collector. Habitat data, 

 which are quite helpful, should be included. After the 

 specimens have been fixed in formalin for approximately 

 a week, they may be placed in plastic refrigerator bags 

 containing moist rags or a little fluid, packed in a box or 

 mailing cylinder, and siiipped parcel post to the Section 

 of Faunistic Surveys, Illinois Natural History Survey, Ur- 

 bana. Identifications on ;ill specimens submitted will be 

 reported to the sender. 



First on the list of desiderata are those species listed 

 as problema'ical. Particular attention is called to those 

 fishes known to occur in marginal counties of adjacent 

 states but as yet unrecorded frt)m Illinois and to those once 

 known in Illinois but now presumed to be extirpated. Al- 

 most half of these species can reasonably be expected to 

 be discovered, or rediscovered, when the state has been 

 more thoroughly investigated. It is possible, though not 

 probable, that some completely unexpected fishes — species 

 that are not cited in the Problematical List — may also be 

 found. 



Of almost equal significance are those species whose 

 occurrence in Illinois is indicated as needing substantiation, 

 particularly those having records based on only one or a 

 few specimens. Additional preserved specimens of species 

 listed as sporadic are likely to be of greater value than thos; 

 listed as occasional, but specimens falling in either category 

 are almost certain to be worthwhile. Obviously any records 

 that require revision of the distributional comments are 

 valuable, even though the species at hand may be generally 

 distributed in another part of the state. 



In order to show the areas within Illinois that need 

 special atrention, the location of the approximately 1,000 

 stations sampled since 1950 has been plotted (Fig. 3). 

 Thus, any stream or section of the state lacking dots is 

 a distributional hiatus. Preserved specimens of any species 

 from such gaps are desirable. 



The most useful collections are those from a variety of 

 habita's at each station. Riffles upstream from the minnow 

 seine should be vigorously agitated, pools of various depths 

 and bottom types seined, and attempts made to capture 

 any fishes hiding in marginal vegetation or in brush piles 

 in the water. The number of species acquired at any one 

 locality depends upon the variety of habitats present at 

 that locality and the thoroughness with which each habitat 

 is sampled. In our experience, the number of species per 

 site, when a standard minnow seine is used, ranges from 1 

 to 35 and averages between 15 and 20 for Illinois streams. 



ANNOTATED LIST OF SPECIES 



The 177 species in the following list represent 69 genera 

 and 27 families. Of the 177 species, 169 have been taken 

 in Illinois waters by me or my associates during the past 5 

 years. Eight (Ac'penser fulvescens, Scaphirhynchus albus, 

 Lepisosteiis spatula, Coregnnus artedii. Salveliiius namay- 

 ciish. Ictiohus niger. Lota lota, and Cottiis ricei) have not 

 been recently encountered by us but are regarded as cur- 

 rent members of the Illinois faima. 



Petromyzonidae — lampreys 



ichth-\oM]zon castaiieus Girard — chestnut lamprey. Oc- 

 casional in the Illinois, Wabash, Ohio, middle and lower 

 Mississippi rivers and the lower reaches of their major 

 tributaries. 



hhlhyomyzoii fossor Reighard & Cinnmins — northern 

 brook lamprey. A record, based on one specimen irom 

 the Kankakee River in Kankakee County, needing sub- 

 stantiation. 



