310 



FISHES OF ILLINOIS 



and in the so-called variety spectabile* ; back with 7 or 8 rather obscure 

 quadrate blotches; sides of males with 11 or 12 bars of dark indigo-blue 

 color, the interspaces between the bars blood-orange, brightest back- 

 ward, as are also the indigo bars; head flesh-color, with lavender on chin 

 and yellow to orange on opercles; forehead and top of snout dull bluish 

 black ; a blue splash below eye and a dark spot behind it ; spinous dorsal 

 crossed at its middle by a row of orange-red spots in an orange band; 

 above and below this a pale to deep indigo-blue band; at base of fin a 

 narrow band of orange with a central row of orange-red spots. Females 

 duller in color than the males, the bars dusky and interspaces olive; 

 spinous dorsal with a narrow outer edging of pale blue, next to which is 

 a straw-colored band with a row of rust-colored spots, in place of the 

 orange of male. Head large, 3 . 6 to 4 in length, the profile in males a 

 broad and practically continuous curve from front of dorsal to tip of 

 snout; females with nape angled; width of head 1 . 7 to 2 . 1 in its length; 

 interorbital space flat, about 3 of eye, 5.8 to 7.2 in head; eye nearly 

 round, 3.7 to 4.1; mouth moderate, terminal, somewhat oblique, tip 

 of upper lip nearer to floor of orbit than base of chin; lips rather large, 

 upper with great lateral depth when closed; maxillary reaching to front 

 of orbit; cleft 3 to 3.5; jaws subequal; gill-membranes scarcely con- 

 nected, distances to angle and to back of orbit about equal. Dorsal 

 fin X (or XI), 12-14; spinous and soft portions scarcely separated, or 

 slightly connected at base; height of first dorsal 2.1 to 2.7 in head, 

 second 1.5 to 1.9 (height of first 68 to 83 per cent, of second) ; caudal 

 truncate; anal II, 7 or 8 (occasionally 6); pectorals 1 to 1.2 in head; 

 separation of ventrals usually about J their width at base. Scales 6, 

 44-51, 7 or 8, occasionally 6 [9 or 10]; lateral line flexed slightly up- 

 ward anteriorly, IS to 20 pores usually lacking; cheeks naked; opercles 

 scaled; nape scaled posteriorly, usually naked in a small patch next to 

 occiput; breast naked; belly covered with ordinarv scales. 



*. !SB: 



^ 



.Fig. 74 



The rainbow darter, one of the most brilliant of its group and 

 closely allied to Etheostoma jessice, is less abundant in this state than 

 that species — occurring in 99 of our collections to 161 of the other — 

 and differs widely from it in local distribution also, especially in an 



*E.ccerukum spectabile (Agassiz), Jordan & Evermann, 1896, Bull U S Nat 

 Mus., No. 47, Pt. I., p. 1089. 



