5o6 Roosevelt ]]'ild Life .hnials 



"2. Crappies do not feed much on the liottom. This is indicated by the 

 scarcity of such foods as bottom mud, ostracods, oligochaetes. and insect larvae 

 Hke Chiroiwinus tcutans, which typically live on or near the bottom and are al)un- 

 dant in Lake Wingra. The crappie differs from the perch in this respect. 



"3. Crappies feed among aquatic vegetation in the open water and to some 

 extent even at the surface. The chironomid larvae occurring in the food are largely 

 those which live in the vegetation along shore, and the same applies to a con- 

 siderable degree to the cladocerans. The dragon-fly, may-fly, and damsel-fly 

 nymphs eaten are those which are found among aquatic plants. The occasional 

 high percentages of adult midges and midge pupae, with presence of grasshoppers 

 and moths indicate that feeding often takes place at the surface." 



There is a seasonal variation in the food of the species, as found by Pearse, 

 who says (I.e., p. 9) : "In the spring the food is made up. for the most part, of 

 amphipods, copepods, and cladocerans. During the summer larvae, pupae, and 

 adults of insects are eaten in large quantities, but cladocerans continue to be 

 utilized. In the autumn, cladocerans, small fishes, and chironomid larvae are the 

 chief foods. Adult crappies do not appear to feed in the winter." Hvermann and 

 Clark ('20, Vol. i, p. 296) found plankton and insect remains to be the food of 

 twenty specimens, from Lake Maxinkuckee, Indiana. 



Distribution Records. Only three Calico Bass were taken, one in each of the 

 following collections: No. 6, Lower South Bay; No. 561, Poddygut Bay; No. 621, 

 Johnson Bay. From Coville's market at Brewerton, we got the following: No. 

 365, 10 specimens; No. 486, 8 specimens; all were said to be from Oneida Lake. 



Enemies and Disease. Hussakof ('14, p. 2) reports finding a Calico Bass in 

 the stomach of an alligator gar, Lcpisostcits tristoechiis. Marshall and Gilbert t '05. 

 ]). 318) in examining three si)ecimens of this species found a leech attached tn the 

 tongue of one fish and one attached to the roof of the mouth of another. There 

 were also a few small cysts on the outer surface of the stomach. Wilson ("ii, 

 P- 333; 'i9> P- 231) mentiiins finding a parasitic copepod, Ergasilus centrarchidarmn 

 Wright, on the gills. He ('11, p. 360) and Faust (18, p. 191) both note a fluke, 

 Crepidostomum iUinoiense Faust, in the intestine of this species of fish. 



Everinann and Clark ('20, Vol. i, p. 296) found six specimens of liniasilus 

 ccntrarchidaruin Wright and some leeches in two specimens of this species. 



Pearse ("n;. p. 14) writes that crappies in Wisconsin Lakes are not heavily 

 parasitized. Of the 276 specimens he examined only eleven carried parasites, and 

 these were intestinal nematodes and trematodes, a leech and some unidentified 

 cysts. He considers the crappie fp. 13) able to live in shore vegetation with much 

 less danger than the Perch, because of its greater immunity to parasites. 



Pratt ('23, p. 67) records a single acanthocephalan, Poinphorhyuclius. frcmi a 

 Calico Bass taken in Oneida Lake: and Van Cleave ('2^,. p. ^2) found I'oiiiplior- 

 hynchus hulhocolli Linkins in an Oneida Lake specimen. 



Economic Relations. Calico Bass are good food-fish commonly prizcil by 

 anglers and cffdrts ^lionld be made t(i increase their numbers there, since conditions 

 ('<)_'. ]). 2ix;) writes (if it as an unaiijireciated species and 

 as saving: ■"I-'rom a Inng and intimate ac(|uaintance with its 



