260 FISHES OF NOETH CAROLINA. 



Inhabits clear brooks from Pennsylvania to South Dakota, and southward 

 to Alabama. Recorded from the French Broad in North Carolina by Cope, and 

 from the Swannanoa at Asheville and Spring Creek at Hot Springs by Jordan, 

 who found it common. It is also known from Richland Creek near Waynesville, 

 where specimens were collected by Mr. P. L. Jouy. This is one of the finest of 

 the darters,' having a maximum length of 5 inches. 



Genus BOLEOSOMA DeKay. Tessellated Darters. 



Small, active fishes, found among vegetation in mountain and lowland 

 streams. Form elongate, fusiform; head small, contracted anteriorly, the supe- 

 rior profile convex; parietal region slightly convex; mouth small, horizontal, 

 maxillaries protractile, teeth on vomer; gill-membranes connected either narrowly 

 or broadly; pyloric coeca 3 to 6; scales rather large, those on median ventral sur- 

 face not enlarged or deciduous; lateral line complete, or interrupted behind; 

 dorsal spines 8 to 10, soft dorsal markedly larger than anal; the latter with a 

 single short spine; ventral fins comparatively well separated; coloration rather 

 plain, no red or blue, the males black in spring. About 10 species; 4 known 

 from North Carolina: {Boleosoma, arrow-bodied.) 



223. BOLEOSOMA OLMSTEDI (Storer). 

 Tessellated Darter. 



Etheogtoma olmstedi Storer, Journal Boston Society of Natural History, 1841, 61, pi 5, fig. 2; Hartford, Connec- 

 ticut. 



EtheoBtoma nigrum olmstedi, Jordan, 1889b, 130; Neuse and Little rivers Smith. 1893a, 192, 196, 200; 

 Pasquotank and Roanoke rivers, and Albemarle Sound. 



Boleo80maniffrum olTnstedi, Jordan &Evermann, 1896, 1057, pi. clxxi,fig, 451. 



Diagnosis (based on Edenton specimens). — Form slender, rounded, the depth contained 

 5.5 times in length; head .25 length; eye contained 3.5 times in head; opercles, cheeks, and 

 breast scaly; scales in lateral series 48 to 52, in transverse series 6 + 8; dorsal fins high, the 

 rays X or XI + 13 or 14; anal rays 1,8 or 1,9. Color: olivaceous; back tessellated with darker; 

 sides blotched; head dusky in males, a black stripe below eye and another anterior to eye; 

 dorsal fins irregularly and finely spotted with dark brown or black; caudal with 6 or 8 narrow, 

 dark vertical bars. (Named for Charles Olmstead, an early American fish student.) 



This darter occurs from Massachusetts to North Carolina in coastwise 

 streams. It is abundant in Little River at Goldsboro and in Abemarle Sound 

 and tributaries, many examples being collected by the writer among clumps of 

 Myriophyllum in quiet muddy water at Edenton, and in running muddy water 

 at Plymouth; all the fish were under 3 inches in length, the males .25 to .5 inch 

 longer than the females. 



224. BOLEOSOMA NIGRUM (Raflnesque). 



Johnny Darter; Black Darter. 



Etheoatoma nigrum Rafinesque, Ichthyologia Ohiensis, 37, 1820; Green River, Ky. Jordan, 18896, 133, 134, 



139; Haw, Yadkin, and Catawba rivers. 

 Boleosoma nigrum, Jordan & Evermann, 1896, 1056, pi. clxx, fig. 450. 



Diagnosis. — Body very long and slender, the depth .16 to .2 length, caudal peduncle 

 longer than head; head about .25 length; eye rather more than .25 head and about equal to 



