28 FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 


length of about one foot. It is very tenacious of life, and is a ready 
biter, but has little value for food. The young, up to the length of sey- 
eral inches, have a very distinct black lateral band. They are often 
found in the shelter of water lillies and other aquatic plants close to 
brackish waters. 
In the market of New York, according to De Kay, the chub sucker 
makes its appearance in October, November and December. Its food 
consists of minute crustaceans, insect larvee and aquatic plants. 
Genus MINYTREMA Jorpay. 
35. Minytrema melanops Rarrnesqve. 
The Striped Sucker. (Figure 32.) 
The striped sucker is robust; the greatest depth of its body is contained four 
times in the length without caudal; length of head four and one-half times. Eye 
moderate, its diameter contained five times in length of head. The caudal peduncle 
is stout, its least depth a little more than twice in length of head. 
The mouth is of moderate size, and horizontal in position. D. 12to 14. Scales, 
46-13. The lateral line is almost complete in adults, but absent in the young. ‘Color 
dusky, coppery below, a cusky blotch behind dorsal; each scale with a dark spot at 
its base, most distinct in adult, these forming longitudinal stripes; male tuberculate 
in spring.” 
The striped sucker, also called soft sucker, sand sucker and black- 
nosed sucker, is found in the great lakes, and south to South Carolina 
and Texas. In Pennsylvania it is limited to Lake Erie and the Ohio 
valley. 
The striped sucker grows to a length of eighteen inches. Old males 
have the head tuberculate in the breeding season in the spring. The 
species is very readily distinguished by the dark stripes along the sides 
produced by spots at the base of each scale. In the young of this 
sucker there is no lateral line, but in adults it is almost entire. 
This species prefers clear, sluggish waters and grassy ponds. It 
readily adapts itself to life in the aquarium. It feeds almost entirely 
on mollusks, insects and insect larvee. The species is not much esteemed 
as a food fish, although it is sold in large numbers. 
Genus MOXOSTOMA 1 Rarrnesqve. 
36. Moxostoma anisurum (RarinesQue). 
The White-nosed Sucker. 
The body of the white-nosed sucker is elongate, little compressed, slightly arched 
anteriorly. Its depth is contained three and one-third times in the length to end of 
scales. The head is moderately large, its length being contained less than four times 
in total length without tail-fin. Eye large, nearly twice in its distance from tip of 
snout. The mouth is moderate, with well-developed lips. Snout rather blunt and 
scarcely projecting beyond the mouth. Fins all well developed. The dorsal fin is 
large; its first ray is as long as the dorsal base, or about seven-eighths length of head. 
D. 15; A.7; scales, 5-43-4. The specimen described, No. 10,793, United States National 
Museum, from Ohio, is sixteen inches long. 
