The Redhorses 



This is a large genus, comprising not fewer than 20 species, 

 all of which occur in the eastern United States in the Atlantic 

 and Gulf drainages. There is no representative of the genus on 

 the Pacific Coast. They inhabit both streams and lakes, but 

 prefer the streams. Their spawning time is in the spring, 

 when they run up the rivers and into the smaller streams, 

 sometimes in very great numbers. 



The species are difficult to distinguish and have been unduly 

 multiplied by authors. They are less tenacious of life than the 

 species of Catostomus, but equal them in food value. 



Of the 20 species only about 5 attain a sufficient size to 

 make them of much value for food. The remaining 15 species, 

 which are mostly of small size, are the following: 



Sucking mullet (M. collapsum), lowland streams of North 

 Carolina; thick-cheeked sucker (M. bucco), Missouri River at 

 St. Joseph; Pedee sucker (M. pidiense), Great Pedee River basin; 

 blue mullet (M. coregonus), Catawba and Yadkin rivers; white 

 mullet (M. album), Catawba and other rivers of North Carolina; 

 green mullet (M. thalassinum), Yadkin River; Texas red-horse 

 (M. congestum), rivers of Texas; Mexican mullet (M. austrinum) 

 Rio Lerma, Mexico; Yadkin mullet (M. robustum) Yadkin River, 

 a doubtful species, perhaps identical with M. macrolepidotum, 

 which occurs from Delaware to the Carolinas ; picconou 

 (M. lesueuri), Albany River, Canada, and elsewhere in the far 

 north, the most northern species, but not well known; Neuse 

 River mullet (M. conus), Neuse and Yadkin rivers, perhaps not 

 distinct from M. breviceps', Tangipahoa mullet (M. pcecilurwn), 

 southern Mississippi to eastern Texas; jump-rocks (M. rupiscartes), 

 rivers from North Carolina to Georgia; and jumping mullet (M. 

 cervinum), rivers of the South Atlantic States from the James to 

 the Neuse, abundant about rapids and rocky pools. 



a. Lips full, the folds broken up into evident papillae ; 



papillosum, 62 

 aa. Lips plicate, the folds not forming distinct papillae. 



b. Dorsal fin large, of 15 to 18 rays; lower lip V-shaped, 



somewhat papillose ; anisurum, 62 



bb. Dorsal fin smaller, of 10 to 14 rays. 



c. Caudal fin with the upper lobe not conspicuously longer 



than the lower. 



d. Dorsal fin with its free margin nearly straight; lower fins 



always red in life ; aureolum, 6) 



61 



