360 



FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



county, by Professor Moenkhaus. It has been reported from 

 the Little Miami in Hamilton county, Ohio. From these more 

 northerly localities it ranges southeastward to west Florida 

 and southwestward to the Rio Grande. 



EUPOMOTIS GIBBOSUS 



PUMPKINSEED 

 (MAP LXXIX) 



Linnseus, 1758, Syst Nat., Ed. X, 292 (Perca). 



J. & G., 482 (Lepomis); M. V., 119 (Lepomis); J. & E., I, 1009; B., I, 32 (aureus); 



N., 38 (Pomotis auritus); J., 46 (aureus); F., 67 (Lepomis); L., 25; R., 35, F. 



F., I. 3, 53 (aureus). 



Length of adults 5 to 8 inches; body strongly compressed, short and 

 deep, the back very highly arched in adults, ventral outline less curved than 

 dorsal; profile steep, convex in front of dorsal, the depression at the nape 

 rather slight. Coloration exceedingly brilliant and somewhat variable, olive 



to grassy greenish, the back and upper por- 

 tion of body finely dusted with gold or 

 emerald; sides with quite numerous and ir- 

 regularly distributed large roundish blotches, 

 which are olive to coppery in front and 

 darker behind, or dark all about a roundish 

 coppery-colored central spot; single scales 

 below lateral lines each with a quadrate 

 central spot, these spots forming rows from 

 before backward, alternate ones coppery and 

 forming the central or anterior spot of the 

 large blotches before mentioned, the others 

 bright emerald or turquoise-blue; belly light 

 olive to orange-yellow; cheeks and opercles 

 crossed by four or five wavy lines of emerald, 

 the interspaces with mingled coppery and 

 gold over the ground olive, producing the 

 effect of a rich bronze in well-colored ex- 

 amples; iris variegated blue and greenish 

 with some crimson above pupil; flap of opercle 

 velvety black behind; a definitely bounded 

 roundish spot of orange or turkey-red on the lower posterior portion of the 

 fleshy margin; the margin above and below the spot dark to blackish with 

 some coppery luster; membranes of both portions of dorsal and of caudal and 

 anal somewhat irregularly barred with dull brownish to orange blotches; 

 ventrals dusky in males, paler or entirely pale in females. Head small, short 

 2.8 to 3.2 in length; the snout with a somewhat snubbed appearance, very 

 short, its length scarcely more than eye; eye 3.5 to 4.2 in head; mouth small, 

 the jaws equal; maxillary reaching but a little past front of orbit, 2.6 to 3.3 

 in head; no supplemental maxillary and no palatine teeth; lower pharyngeals 

 broad and deep, with inferior and lateral prominences; the teeth short and 



FIG. 67 



Lower left pharyngeal of Eupo- 

 m-jtis gibbosvs: Fig. 66 from 

 above; Fig. 67 from outside. 



