Tne PIGMiIG suiNEISGES 
DR. ROBERT E. COKER, U. S. Bureau 
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Among the most interesting and the 
least known fishes of the United States 
are the pigmy sunfishes, Elassoma sona- 
tum, Jordan and Elassoma evergladei, 
Jordan, the smallest of our spiny-rayed 
fishes. Elassoma zonatum was originally 
described by Jordan in the Bulletin of 
the National Museum, No. 10, 1877, 
from specimens collected by Professor 
H. G. Reynolds in the Little Red River, 
Arkansas. He referred to them as “curt- 
ous little fish, representing a type en- 
tirely new to me, for which I would pro- 
Elassoma zonatum 
Pigmy Sunfish 
pose the above generic name” (Elas- 
soma, meaning a diminutive being). Jor- 
dan could not then positively assign the 
species to a particular family, but, a 
couple of years later, with more mate- 
rial from Forbes’ collections in Hlinois, 
he created for the pigmy fish a new fam- 
ily called Elassomidae which he placed 
between the small pirate perches (Aph- 
redoderidae) and the sunfishes (Cen- 
trarchidae). In 1884, another species 
was added to this unique family in Elas- 
soma evergladei from Lake Jessup and 
Indian River, Florida. The evergladei 
seems to be a very variable form, but it 
differs from sonatum principally in hay- 
ing much larger scales. 
Although many collections have been 
made subsequently, the genus and fam- 
of Fisheries | 
a 
ily remain to the present time with only 
the two representatives, the zonatuim of 
the south generally and the evergladei of 
Florida and southern Georgia. Ameri- 
can ichthyologists have followed Jordan 
in preserving a distinct family for the 
pygmies, although Boulenger in the 
Catalogue of Fishes in the British Mu- 
seum (1895) regards them as only a 
dwarfed form of the Centrarchidae. 
Jordan’s original specimens were just 
one inch in length, but specimens later 
collected in Mississippi measured 15% 
HaOMES, Erecorralnare wo IDie, (Os 12, Inlayy, Oinne 
specimens are rather uniform in size, 
varying from 5 to 34 inches in length, 
except that a single example has a length 
of 1% inches. 
These were collected by Mr. Franklin 
Barnes, who was engaged for the Bu- 
reau in northern Louisiana in an ecolozi- 
cal study of fishes with reference to 
mosquito extermination and who had 
béen requested to keep a lookout for the 
pigmy sunfishes. months 
before he found them and then only in 
It was some 
one collecting station. Again, during the 
spring of the present year, they were 
looked for in the same and other places, 
but they did not at first appear. I,ater 
they were found, but only at the original 
station. In order that something might 
be learned of the feeding habits of this 
elusive species, specimens were sent to 
Washington. Although four days were 
consumed in the journey by express 
from Mound, Louisiana, to Washington, 
D. C., in hot weather, the lot of fishes, 
comprising 75 Elassoma 
Gambusia affinis and 8 Fundulus chryso- 
tus in a ten-gallon milk can, came 
through with none dead. It may be men- 
gonatum, 2 
