346 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



is a hardy bait, active on the hook and attractive to the game 

 fishes just named. 



The principal food of the Chub consists of insect larvae, aquatic 

 insects, worms and small crustaceans. 



Head 3.75 to 4 ; depth 4.75 ; eye 7.5 ; snout 3 ; interorbital 2.4 ; 

 D. 8; A. 8; scales 9-57-5, about 40 before the dorsal; teeth 2, 

 5-4, 2. 



Body stout, not much compressed, the dorsal outline arched 

 somewhat in front of dorsal, the body tapering backward from a 

 point considerably in front of dorsal, so that the base of that fin 

 is quite oblique; head large, bluntly conic, broad and rounded 

 above; snout broad; mouth broad, oblique, lower jaw somewhat 

 included, the upper lip entirely below level of pupil; maxillary 



Common Chub (Semotilus atromaculatus) 



barely reaching front of orbit; maxillary barbel small, sometimes 

 not evident; eye small; scales small, greatly reduced and crowded 

 anteriorly; lateral line strongly decurved. 



Color, dusky bluish above, side with a vague dusky band, quite 

 black in the young, but almost or entirely disappearing with age; 

 belly whitish, rosy in breeding males ; dorsal fin with a large black 

 spot on base of anterior rays, bordered with red in the adult male ; 

 a dusky vertebral line ; scales everywhere black at base and dusky 

 on edges ; a broad black bar on shoulder behind opercular opening ; 

 males in spring with the snout coarsely tuberculate ; young with a 

 small black spot at base of caudal. The Chub varies somewhat 

 in the number of scales, northern specimens having an increased 

 number. Our specimens have from 57 to 60. The number of 

 fin-rays is also large in our specimens, one having D. 8 ; A. 9, and 

 another D. 9 ; A. 9. 



