LEPOMIS SUNFISHES 255 



not widely distributed through the country at large. Our fre- 

 quency statistics, derived from 151 collections, show that this is 

 a sunfish of the creeks and smaller rivers, where its coefficients are 

 2.98 and 2.35 respectively, the corresponding figures for the 

 larger rivers and for lowland lakes being .17 and .14. In the 

 upland lakes we have not taken it at all. 



Northward this species grades into a smaller dwarfish 

 variety, probably Xenotis lythrochloris, which has been taken 

 only in the clear swift water of the Fox at Ottawa, Lacon, and 

 Algonquin; in the Du Page at Naperville; in the Vermilion at 

 Pontiac and Fairbury; in a small creek in Du Page county; and 

 in Indian creek, La Salle county. These small forms have the 

 ear-flaps red and the scales of the cheek smaller than typical 

 megalotis. Their size is alone sufficient to distinguish them, 

 gravid females having been found only 1J^ inches long, and no 

 specimen exceeding three inches. 



Found outside our limits in Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michi- 

 gan; on the south Atlantic coast in Georgia and the Florida 

 peninsula; through the Ohio and Missouri basins to Iowa and 

 Minnesota, and thence south through Arkansas to the Rio 

 Grande. It is said to avoid muddy water, is especially abundant 

 in small brooks, and frequents deep still places in rivers and clear 

 ponds. It is wanting in the Atlantic drainage of the northern 

 and middle states. 



The long-eared sunfish is not ordinarily more than four or 

 five inches long, and has no commercial importance. Our 

 scanty observations indicate that it feeds on aquatic insects, 

 mostly larvae of gnats and day-flies. Notwithstanding its more 

 limited distribution, it is a frequent companion of the green 

 sunfish (coefficient of association, 2.65), and inhabits similar 

 waters where it is most abundant. 



LEPOMIS HUMILIS (GIEAED) 



ORANGE-SPOTTED SUNFISH 

 (MAP LXXVII) 



Girard, 1857, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 201 (Bryttus). 



J. & G., 479; M. V., 118; J. & E., I, 1004; B., I, 30 (Eupomotis); N., 38 (Ichthelis 

 anagallinus) ; J., 45 (Lepiopomis anagallinus) ; F., 68; L., 24; R., 34. 



Size small, length not over 3^ inches; body elongate, compressed, the 

 back almost carinate for some distance in front of the dorsal; dorsal outline 

 usually somewhat more curved than ventral; profile long, sloping gradually, 

 usually nearly straight, the angle at the nape in most cases very slight, and 

 greatest in males; depth 2.1 to 2.5 in length, usually about 2.4. Color light 



