Turner and Kraatz. — Food of Large-Mouth Bass 373 



Twenty-six different articles of diet, that is, kinds or 

 groups of organisms or remains of such, were recognized in 

 the contents of the stomachs and intestines of the young bass. 

 These have been arranged in Table 1, giving the length 

 in millimeters of the fish examined; the total number of fish 

 of each length examined, and the percentage of the entire 

 volume of food which each article of diet forms in fishes of all 

 the various lengths. 



Cladocera, Copepoda, and the larvae and pupae of midges 

 (Chironomidse) are the most abundant articles of food. 

 Ostracoda occur rather evenly distributed in the stomachs of 

 young of all sizes, but they are found only in very small num- 

 bers at best. Amphipoda constitute a fairly important food 

 for the intermediate size of young bass, but are relatively un- 

 important in the larger ones. Nymphs and adults of Corixa 

 and small fish are taken very freely by the largest of the 

 young bass. Mayfly nymphs are occasionally found in 

 stomachs of the intermediate-sized and larger fish, as was the 

 case of a few coming within the range of this report. How- 

 ever, in a larger yearling fish, 92 mm. in length, 22 mayfly 

 nymphs were found, constituting 95 per cent of its food. 

 Insects recognizable by the hard chitinous parts, but too much 

 broken up for identification, often formed the major part of 

 the diet of a fish, and were sufficiently abundant in the inter- 

 mediate and larger stages to form a fair proportion of the 

 total diet. The occurrence of filamentous algas was exceed- 

 ingly irregular. Sometimes such algae occurred as small frag- 

 ments, making a negligible proportion of the food, but in a 

 few exceptional cases formed nearly 100 per cent of the 

 stomach contents. The filaments, wadded together into small 

 pellets, proved to be Spirogyra and QEdogonium. Material, 

 undoubtedly animal remains, but so well digested as to render 

 further identification impossible, was listed as animal debris. 

 The other articles entered in the table were irregular in oc- 

 currence and in most cases were very small in quantity. 



