82 FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



This species, with its two varieties, extends throughout the 

 Great Lake region; northeast to the St. Lawrence and the Con- 

 necticut rivers, and to the St. Johns River, in New Brunswick; 

 southeast to Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida; southward 

 to the Gulf, southwest to the Rio Grande, and northward to the 

 Dakotas. The northern representatives of the species belong 

 to the variety oblongus and the southern to sucetta. 



In this state it is widely distributed in large and small 

 streams, and in the small lakes of McHenry county, in north- 

 eastern Illinois; but it is much the most abundant in the eastern 

 part of the state in the drainage of the Wabash and the Ohio 

 rivers, and in the headwaters of the Sangamon and of the 

 Kaskaskia adjacent to these. A line drawn through the middle 

 of the state from north to south but swerving slightly to the 

 west below central Illinois, has 101 of our localities for this 

 species to the east of it and but 8 to the west. It is essentially 

 a creek species, occurring proportionally five times as frequently 

 in our collections from creeks as from rivers, large or small, 

 and eight times as frequently as from lakes and ponds. 



The chub-sucker is a bottom feeder, and has the habit of sup- 

 porting itself on the bottom, like the darter, by means of its 

 paired fins. In ordinary seasons it spawns in central Illinois in 

 April and May. Ripe males were taken at Havana April 10, 

 1899, and females with ripe ovaries from March 20 to April 15. 

 This fish bites readily at a small hook, but its flesh is bony and 

 without flavor, and owing to its small size the species has no 

 commercial value. 



GENUS MINYTREMA JOEDAX 



SPOTTED SUCKERS 



Body elongate, compressed; mouth inferior; upper lip freely protractile; 

 lower lip plicate, forming an angle posteriorly; posterior fontanelle large; 

 supraorbital bone present; suborbital bones well developed; pharyngeal 

 bones as in Erimyzon, but the teeth somewhat coarser; vertebrae 39; thoracic 

 ribs 17; dorsal rays about 12; scales rather large, nearly equal all over the 

 body; lateral line interrupted in adults, more or less imperfect in half-grown 

 specimens and entirely obsolete in the young; air-bladder with two chambers. 

 Fresh waters of the United States; one species known. 



