FOREST, P'ISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



341 



CI)^I> ^QCiSf^r, — £rimj/zoft sucefta {Laciphde). 



This interesting little sucker is found from New England and the Great Lakes 

 southward in the Atlantic slope and the Mississippi Valley to Florida and Texas. 

 It attains a length only of 8 or 10 inches, and is not much valued as a food-fish. It 

 inhabits the smaller, quiet creeks and the smaller lakes, preferring cool water and 

 muck bottom. It is the only species of its genus and may be known from other 

 suckers by the entire absence of the lateral line. As live bait, the young are prob- 

 ably somewhat superior to those of the three preceding species, as the color is 

 more silvery. 



Head 4%; depth 3 ; eye 4}^; D. usually 12 ; A. 7 ; V. 9 ; scales 36,-15. 



Body rather short, compressed, becoming gibbous with age, the antedorsal 



CHUB SUCKER. 



region more or less elevated in the adult, the depth ranging from 2j4 in the adult 

 to 4 in the young; head short and stout, the interorbital space wide; scales 

 usually closely imbricated and more or less crowded anteriorly, but often showing 

 irregularities in arrangement. 



Color varying much with age ; usually showing pale streaks along the rows of 

 scales; young with a broad black lateral band bordered above by paler; in examples 

 from clear water this band is jet-black and very distinct, in others it is duller ; later 

 this band becomes broken into a series of blotches which often assume the form of 

 broad transverse bars; in adults these bars disappear and the color is nearly uni- 

 form brown, dusky above, paler below, everywhere with a coppery or brassy, never 



