Jordan and Ever mann. Fishes of North America. 1097 



Subgenus ETHEOSTOMA. 



1490. ETHESTOMA FLABELLARE, Rafinesque. 



(FAN-TAILED DARTER.*) 



Head 33 to 4 ; depth 4J to 5|; eye 4 to 4| in head ; snout 4. D. VIII-12 

 to 14 ; A. II, 7 to 9 ; scales 9-40 to 65-14, 15 to 40 pores. Number of fin 

 rays and scales subject to large variations, the spines occasionally fewer 

 than 8. Body slender, compressed, the back not elevated ; head long 

 and pointed ; snout not decurved, the upper lip on a level with top of 

 eye; mouth very oblique, lower jaw projecting; maxillary reaching 

 front of eye ; interorbital space narrow, 1| in eye ; gill membranes rather 

 broadly united; distance from mouth to gill cleft on median line 1| to \\ 

 in head; caudal peduncle compressed, deep, its least depth 2 in head. 

 Fins all low, the first dorsal in the male about \ as high as second, higher 

 in the female, the spines with enlarged fleshy tips in the male ; anal about 

 size of soft dorsal ; pectorals usually not quite as long as head, their tips 

 reaching beyond tips of ventrals ; caudal large, rounded. Scales moder- 

 ate ; head entirely naked ; lateral line nearly straight, incomplete, reach- 

 ing about to end of first dorsal ; a narrow strip along base of spinous 

 dorsal not scaled. Color rather dark, body covered with numerous fine 

 dark specks, these forming dark cross bands or blotches in the males, 

 less distinct in the females ; black humeral spot conspicuous ; usually 

 a dark line across opercles, through the eye, and around snout ; second 

 dorsal and caudal fins barred, other fins usually plain; pectorals faintly 

 barred in Virginia specimens. Length 2 inches. New York to Virginia, 

 west to Iowa, and south to South Carolina and northern Alabama; 

 usually abundant wherever found. It lives in swift waters, and its 

 movements in the water are more active than those of any other species ; 

 it is the most hardy in the aquarium. (flabellarlSj like a fan, from the 

 form of the tail.) 



Etheosloma flabellaris, RAFINESQUE, Jour, de Physique, 1819, 419, tributaries of Ohio River. 

 Etheostoma flabellata, RAFINESQUE, Ichth. Ohiensis, 36, 1820, Ohio River. 

 Elheostomafontinalis, RAFINESQUE, Ichth. Ohiensis, 86, 1820, Ohio River. 

 Etheostoma linsleyi, STORER, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1851, 37, Wolcott, "Wayne County, 



New York. 

 Oligocephalus humeralis, GIRARD, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1859, 67, James River, Virginia. 



*The Darter of Darters is the Fan-tail (Etheostoma flabellare). Hardiest, wiriest, wariest of 

 them all, it is the one which is most expert in catching other creatures, and the one which most 

 surely evades your clutch. You can catch a weasel asleep when you can put your finger oti one 

 of these. It is a slim, narrow, black, pirate-rigged little fish, with a long pointed head, and a 

 projecting, prow-like lower jaw. It carries no flag, but is colored like the rocks among which 

 it lives. It is dark brown in hue, with a dusky spot on each scale, so that the whole body seems 

 covered with lengthwise stripes, and these are further relieved by cross Lands of the same color. 

 Its fins, especially the broad, fan-shaped caudal, are likewise much checkered with spots of 

 black. The spines of the dorsal fin are very low, and each of these in the male ends in a little 

 fleshy pad of a rusty-red color, the fish's only attempt at ornamentation. The Fan -tailed Darter 

 chooses the coldest and swiftest waters, and in these, as befits his form, he leads an active, preda- 

 tory life. He is the terror of water snails and caddis worms, and the larva* of mosquitoes. In 

 the aquarium this Darter is one of the most interesting of fishes, for, though plainly colored, it 

 is very handsome, and in its movements is the most graceful of all the Darters. Its mouth opens 

 wider than that of any of the others, and it is fuller of bristling teeth. Its large, yellow-rim- 

 med black eyes are ever on the watch. The least of a "fish " and the most of a Darter, the Fan- 

 tailed is worthily left as a type of the genus Etheosk/ma, iu which it was first placed by its 

 discoverer, Rafinesque. (Jordan & Copeland.) 



