A PRELIMINARY ANNOTATED LIST OF THE 

 LAMPREYS AND FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



Philip W. Smith 



THH PUBLICATION AT THIS TIME of a pre- 

 liminary annotated list of Illinois lampreys and fishes 

 has two primary objectives. It can pro\ ide field biolo- 

 gists with a critical and updated list of the known species 

 in the state and a brief indication of the present distribu- 

 tion of each one and, at the same time, it can alert field 

 workers to critical areas where additional collecting is 

 desirable, to problematical records that need substantia- 

 tion, and to other problems that warrant investigation. 

 Perhaps equally important, it can summarize and report 

 to them, without undue delay, new information, some 

 ot which is the result ot their own collecting. 



In addition to the classic Fishes of Illinois by Forbes 

 & Richardson (1908), five annotated lists of Illinois 

 fishes have been published (Nelson 1876, Jordan 1878, 

 Forbes 188-4, Large 1903, and O'Donnell 193''). These 

 papers, most of which were remarkably thorough for 

 their time, were based on considerably less field work 

 than is possible with transportation facilities of today. 

 Much of the nomenclature and some of the concepts 

 of the authors are now out of date. A new Fishes of 

 Illinois, aimed at discerning changes in distribution, is 

 in preparation, but its appearance must await termination 

 ot the current ichthyotaunal survey of the state. The 

 present list, although essentially a progress report, con- 

 tains a substantial amount of new distributional data, 

 including several new records for the state. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



Although the ichthyotaunal survey was initiated sev- 

 eral years ago, extensive field work did not begin until 

 the summer of 1962. The success of the priigram since 

 that time has been due in large part to the unstinting effort 

 of my assistant, Mr. Marvin E. Braasch, and to splendid 

 cooperation from Mr. A. C. Lopinot and his staff of 

 biologists in the Division of Fisheries of the Illinois 

 Department of Conservation. During this time a num- 

 ber of people and agencies have contributed dozens of 

 important collections and much helpful information. Be- 

 cause the number of contributors is so large, acknowl- 

 edgment for their contributions and cooperation must 

 await the forthcoming state report. 



For critical perusal of the manuscript, I am grateful 

 to Mr. Lopinot; Mr. Loren P. Woods, Chicago Natural 

 History Museum; and Dr. Reeve M. Bailey, University 

 ot Michigan Museum of Zoology. I owe a special debt 

 to Dr. Bailey for graciously checking identifications and 



Thi.s piiprr \s piilill.shed liy iiiilliorltv nC the .State rjf Illlnnl.s, 

 lUS Cli. IL'T. Par. .'>X.1L'. 11 i.s a loiiti-ilnition fnnii the Sertioii 

 of KainiiHtie Stlr\'e.\'8 and Insert Identilieation nf the lUinnis 

 .Natural History Snrvey. I M-. I'liilip W, Smith is a TaxntHUnisl 

 assigned to that »eetifin. 



providing counsel throughout the past several years. For 

 calling my attention to the occurrence of iWcnidia a/ulens, 

 Ammocrypta virax, and Uiheosioriia stii^maeiim in Mis- 

 souri counties adjoining Illinois and for permission to 

 cite these records as hypothetical additions to the Illi- 

 nois fauna, I am indebted to Mr. William L. Ptlieger 

 and the agency with which he was formerly associated, 

 the Missouri Conservation Commission. For counsel 

 regarding the distribution of certain Ohio River fishes, 

 I am grateful to Dr. W. L. Minckley of Arizona State 

 LIniversity. 



The maps were adapted by Miss Marguerite Verley, 

 formerly with the Illinois Natural History Survey, from 

 a base map drawn by Mr. John W. Brother, Jr., of the 

 Illinois Water Survey. Final drafting was done by Mr. 

 William L. Taylor of the Natural History Survey. The 

 manuscript was edited by Mr. James S. Ayars, Technical 

 Editor of the Survey, who made numerous helpful sug- 

 gestions in the preparation of the paper. The cover 

 photo was taken by Mr. William E. Clark, formerly 

 staff photographer. 



METHOD OF TREATMENT IN THE 

 ANNOTATED LIST 



The 177 species of lampreys and fishes known to 

 occur at present in Illinois waters are grouped under family 

 names, set as center heads and arranged in phyk)genetic 

 sequence. Within each family, however, genera and species 

 are listed in alphabetical order. Except where Dr. Bailey 

 has advised certain departures, scientific names used are 

 those currently employed by a majority of American ich- 

 thyologists; with a few exceptions, common names are those 

 recommended in the official list (Bailey 1960) by the joint 

 committee on fish names of the American Fisheries Society 

 and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetolo- 

 gists. Subspecies names are used when only one subspecies 

 of the species is known to occur in Illinois. When more 

 than one occurs in the state, the word s/ibspccies follows the 

 name of the author of the species name, thus connoting 

 that the relationships of the subspecies remain to be studied. 



For each species, a concise statement regarding its 

 current distribution in the state is given. The term i^cnci- 

 ally dislributed implies that any suitable habitat, within 

 the prescribed area, should be expected to yield specimens 

 with a reasonably thorough search; occiisioihil that suitable- 

 appearing habitat may or may not yield specimens even 

 after prolonged search; and sporadic that the encountering 

 of specimens of a given species cannot be predicted at all. 

 No connotation of abundance is intended, for a generally 

 distributed species is sometimes relatively uncommon 



