Red-spotted Sunfish 



Body short and deep, compressed, the back very strongly arched 

 in adult, the profile very steep, usually forming an angle above the 

 eyes, but sometimes full and convex; mouth small, oblique, the 

 premaxillary rather below the eye, the maxillary reaching middle of 

 eye; gillrakers very short and soft, weaker than in any other species; 

 dorsal spines very low, the longest little longer than snout, 3 in 

 head; opercular flap in the adult very long and broad, with a pale 

 blue or red margin, which is sometimes very broad, sometimes 

 almost wanting; opercular flap half, or more, longer than the eye 

 in the adult, much shorter in the young. Colour, brilliant blue 

 and orange, the back chiefly blue, the belly entirely orange, the 

 orange on sides in spots, the blue in wavy, vertical streaks; lips 

 blue; cheek orange, with bright blue stripes; blue stripes before 

 the eye, soft parts of vertical fins with the rays blue and the mem- 

 branes orange; ventrals dusky; iris red. 



Red-spotted Sunfish 



Lepomis humilis (Girard) 



This small, highly-coloured sunfish is found from Ohio and 

 Kentucky west to the Dakotas and south to Texas; locally abun- 

 dant, especially in sandy streams in the lower Missouri basin. 

 It reaches only about 4 inches in length and, though it will take 

 a hook readily, it is of little importance as a game-fish. 



Body oblong, profile not steep; scales large; spines rather high; 

 mucous pores on head very large; opercular flap rather long, 

 broad, and with a very broad red margin which entirely sur- 

 rounds the black; longest dorsal spine not quite half head; pec- 

 toral a little shorter than head; gillrakers rather long and well 

 developed. Colour, bluish, with conspicuous greenish spots and 

 mottlings posteriorly; side with many conspicuous round, salmon- 

 red spots; usually a faint black spot on last rays of dorsal; 

 belly and lower fins red. 



Lepomis haplognathus is a rare species known only from 

 Monterey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. The species is interesting chiefly 

 in that it is the most southern sunfish known. 



In the Ohio Valley, and southwestward to Kentucky and 

 Arkansas, is another small sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) reach- 

 ing a length of 4 or 5 inches. It is related to the bluegill, 

 from which it differs in having no black spot on dorsal or anal 



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