Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) 



Forbes and Richardson (1908) reported that pumpkinseeds were most 

 abundant in the northern part of the state (Lake and McHenry Counties) 

 and were present along the Illinois River. Very few pumpkinseeds have 

 been taken by electrofishing: one from Peoria Pool in each year from 

 1960 to 1963, and two in 1962; one in 1967; one in 1968; and two in 1974, 

 from Marseilles Pool. 

 Warmouth (Lepomis gulosus) 



A total of 126 warmouths were taken during the entire electrofishing 

 survey. Most of the fish were taken from Alton and LaGrange Pools. One 

 was taken from Peoria Pool in 1963 and another in 1974. Two were taken 

 from Marseilles Pool in 1974. 



The warmouth' s principal habitat is ponded, often turbid water, 

 where bottoms are soft mud (Larimore, 1957). With a habitat preference 

 such as this, one might expect warmouths to be more abundant in the 

 Illinois River than they are. However, they also prefer dense weed beds 

 and feed on larval insects, including species which are associated with 

 weed beds, such as damselflies and dragonflies (Larimore, 1957). Since 

 weed beds and the associated weed fauna have been eliminated from most 

 of the middle and lower sections of the Illinois River, and since other 

 insect food organisms, such as mud-burrowing mayflies, are also less 

 abundant than they once were, the relative paucity of warmouths in the 

 electrofishing collections is not surprising. 

 Orangespotted sunfish (Lepomis humilis) 



A total of 343 orangespotted sunfish were taken during the electro- 

 fishing survey, with the numbers taken per pool as follows: Dresden, 

 0; Marseilles, 38; Starved Rock, 4; Peoria, 240; LaGrange, 39; and 

 Alton, 22. 



Forbes and Richardson (1908) reported that this species was often 

 taken along the shore of the Illinois River and in adjacent lakes and 

 sloughs. Orangespotted sunfish appear to tolerate turbid water, water 

 level fluctuations, and silt bottoms (Trautman, 1957; Cross, 1967). 



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