674 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



988. CYPRINODON MACULARIUS, Baird & Girard. 



Head 3 to 3. Adults very short and deep, the depth being nearly or quite 

 half the length ; in half-grown specimens 1 inch long, the depth is con- 

 tained 2| in length. D. 9 to 11; A. 10 or 11*; V. 6; scales 24 or 25. Eyevery 

 small, about equal to snout, \\ to If times in interorbital width, 

 and 3f times in head. Front of dorsal usually midway between occiput 

 and base of caudal. The species varies in form and color, and apparently 

 in the size which it reaches in different localities. Males with the back 

 and sides uniform dusky, the lower parts lighter, all the fins in the most 

 brightly colored individuals being broadly margined with black ; females 

 with the lower half of sides as well as belly lighter, often silvery white, 

 the sides crossed by black bars, which are wide along middle of body, but 

 become much narrower than the interspaces on the lower half of sides ; 

 these bars varying in number and size and often alternating with nar- 

 rower, fainter, and shorter ones; fins light, the dorsal either with or 

 without a black blotch on its posterior rays. Although usually uniform 

 in coloration, the males occasionally show lateral bars, which, however, 

 contrast little with the general dusky color of the sides. (Gilbert.) 

 Springs and streams of the desert, from southern Nevada to Sonora ; 

 locally abundant, (macularius, spotty.) 



Cyprinodon macularius, BAIRD & GIRARD, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1853, 389, Rio San Pedro, 

 Arizona; GIRARD, U. S. Mex. Bound. Surv., Ichth., 68, pi. 37, figs. 8-11, 1859; JORDAN & 

 GILBERT, Synopsis, 330, 1883; GILBERT, Death Valley Exped., 232, 1893. 



Cyprinodon calif orniensis^ GIRARD, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1859, 157, San Diego County, 

 California, probably from salt springs in the desert; JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 

 330, 1883. 



Cyprinodon nevadensis, EIGENMANN, Proc. Cal. Ac. Nat. Sci., 1889, 270, Saratoga Springs, Death 

 Valley, Inyo County, California. 



* The normal number of ventral rays in this species seems to be 6. No specimen examined 

 has shown more than this number, and in several but 5 are present. In one specimen from Ash 

 Meadows, Nevada, the ventral fin of one side only is present, and contains but 3 or 4 rays. Four 

 young specimens from the same locality and 2 from Medbury Springs, Amargosa Desert, Cali- 

 fornia, have the ventrals wholly aborted, and show on dissection no trace of the basals. These 

 occur in the same lots with other specimens having normal ventrals, and are otherwise indis- 

 tinguishable from them. No full-grown adults were found without ventrals, the largest being 

 a half-grown specimen about 1 inch long with the characteristic coloration of the males already 

 developed. Ten young specimens from the " Devil's Hole," Ash Meadows, are all without ven- 

 trals, and further collections from this locality would be of interest. In the intestines were 

 found fragments of insects, and in one series of specimens from Saratoga Springs at the south 

 end of Death Valley, California, very numerous shells of a small Gasteropod mollusk. Speci- 

 mens are in the collection from the following localities : Medbury Spring (6 miles north of the 

 Borax Works), Amargosa Desert, California; Ash Meadows, Amargosa Desert, Nevada; Saratoga 

 Springs, Death Valley, California; Amargosa Creek, California. Gilbert. 



f Cyprinodon californiensis is thus described: "It may be easily distinguished from its congeners 

 in North America by its uniform system of coloration, which exhibits neither bands nor spots. 

 The general aspect of its body is rather short and deep, except in the young, which assume a 

 subfusiform appearance. The largest specimens which we have examined measure about an 

 inch and a half in total length. The head constitutes the fourth of the length, the snout being 

 abruptly rounded off. The mouth is, proportionately speaking, of medinm size, whilst the eye 

 is rather small, subcircular; its diameter entering three times and a half in the length of the 

 side of the head. The dorsal fin is higher than long, and superiorly convex; its interior margin 

 being nearer the apex of the snout than the posterior margin of the caudal. The anal fin is 

 nearly as large as the dorsal, deeper than long, inferiorly convex, particularly upon its posterior 

 half. The caudal is posteriorly truncated, nearly linear. The ventrals are small, project beyond 

 the vent and reach almost the origin of the anal. The pectorals are well developed, rounded off, 

 extending as far as a vertical line drawn at the insertion of the ventrals. The rays are: D. 10 + 1; 

 A. 11; C. 3, 1, 8, 8, 1, 3; V. 7; P. 12. The scales are much deeper than long, anteriorly truncated 

 and posteriorly rounded off or convex. The color is olivaceous brown, with a dark -grayish tint 

 along the back, and a golden tint beneath." Girard. Sau Diego County, California. 



