CHUB SUCKER. 



above, paler below, every whoro with a coppery or braaay, never silvery, lustre ; tlie flns 

 are duekv or smoky brown, rarely reddish-tinged ; sexual differences strong; the males 

 in spring with usually three large tubercles on each side of the snout, and with the anal 

 fin more or less swollen and emarginate ; adalt specimens with the back gibbous and 

 the body strongly compressed, in appearance quite unlike the young ; maximum length 

 about 10 inches. 



Habitat, all waters of the United States east of the Rjcky Mountains. 



Diagnosis — This is the only Sucker in Ohio without a lateral line which 

 has not a series of black spots along the rows of scales on the sides of the 

 body. 



Habits — This species, like the two preceding, abounds in every brook 

 and pond in the State of Ohio. It is one of the very smallest of the Suck- 

 ers, rarely reaching the length of a foot. It is more than usually tenac- 

 ious of life, and bites readily at a small hook, but is of very little value 

 as food. The young are rather handsome fishes, the black lateral band 

 'being sometimes very distinct. In the aquarium they feed upon algse 

 and the ofifal of other fishes. In the stomachs of specimens examined 

 by Prof. Forbes, only confervse, diatoms, and mud were found. 



Genus 21. MINYTREMi. Jordan. 



Minytrema, Jordan, Man. Vert., 2d ed.. 1878, 318. 



Catostomus, Ptyckostomus, Moxostoma, and Erimyzon sp , Authors. 



Type, Catostomus melanopa, Rafinesque. 



Etymology, minus, reduced ; trema, aperture, in allusion to the imperfections of the 

 lateral line. 



Species with the form, squamation, and general appearance of Myxostoma, but with 

 the air bladder in two parts, as in Erimyzon, and the lateral line imperfect, in the very 

 young entirely obsolete, in half-grown specimens showing as a succession of deepened 

 furrows, in the adult with perfect tubes, but interrupted, these tubes being wanting on 

 some of the scales, especially posteriorly ; head moderate, rather broad above ; mouth 

 moderate, inferior, horizontal, the upper lip well developed, freely protractile, rather 

 small, infolded, ^.-shaped in outline, plicated, with 12 to 20 plic» on each side ; lower 

 jaw without cartilaginous sheath; eye moderate, rather high up, placed about midway 

 of the head. Suborbital bones considerably developed, not very much nariower than 

 the fleshy portion of the cheek below them, the posterior suborbital concavo-convex, 

 about twice as long as deep, sometimes divided, the anterior somewhat deeper than 

 long, often divided into two, sometime^ united with the preorbita', which is well 

 developed and much longer than broad. The number and form of these bones, except 

 as to their depth, are not constant in the same species, and do not afford specific char- 

 acters; opercular bones well developed, not mnch rugose; fontanelle evident, rather 

 large; gill rakers rather long, in length about half the diameter of the eye; isihmus 

 moderate; pha'-yiigeal hours essentially as in Myxostoma; body rather elongate, sub- 

 terete, becoming deep and rather compressed with age ; scales rather large, nearly 

 equal over the body, the radiating furrows not specially marked ; lateral line as above. 



