West Virginia Fishes 1 1 1 



from the James River, Virginia, to Hudson River, New York; as P. 

 peltata nevisense from the Neuse and Tar rivers, North Carolina; and as 

 P. p. subspp. from the upper Roanoke River. This percid was expected 

 to occur in the West Virginia part of the Potomac and James rivers by 

 Raney (1947) and Denoncourt et al. (1975). Stauffer et al. (1978) indi- 

 cated that it was not known in the upper Potomac River west of the- 

 Blue Ridge divide. On 15 July 1977 a single specimen of the shield dar- 

 ter was collected from the Shenandoah River, West Virginia, during a 

 boat electrofishing survey (WVWR 398, verified by Jenkins). This cap- 

 ture represents an upstream distribution record, and an addition to the 

 Shenandoah River (R. E. Jenkins, pers. comm.) and West Virginia 

 fauna. Other species taken concurrently were: Anguilla rostrata, 

 Cyprinus carpio, Catostomus commersoni, Hypentelium nigricans, 

 Moxostoma sp., Ictalurus punctatus, Lepomis auritus, L. gibbosus, L. 

 macrochirus, Micropterus dolomieui, and M. salmoides. The inability 

 of past investigators to collect P. p. peltata in the Potomac River, West 

 Virginia, suggests that it is either extremely rare or restricted to large- 

 river habitat. 



Percina shumardi (Girard), river darter 



Gilbert (1980b) indicated that the river darter is broadly distributed 

 throughout the Gulf slope, Mississippi basin, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, 

 and Hudson Bay drainages of North America. It is sporadically distrib- 

 uted and rare in the Ohio River basin, especially in the middle and 

 upper reaches of the main channel (Trautman 1981, Clay 1975, Smith 

 1979, Burr 1980). Trautman (1957) reported it from only a few Ohio 

 localities in the Ohio River drainage. He indicated it was definitely 

 known from the Ohio River proper before 1900, and depicted three 

 records (two in West Virginia) from this period. No new records in West 

 Virginia were noted by Trautman (1981). Although Miles (1971) listed 

 the species as known in the state, Raney (1947) and Denoncourt et al. 

 (1975) reported it as an expected species (probably due to the absence of 

 verifiable specimens). On 14 October 1980, one specimen of the river 

 darter was found in a rotenone sample of an Ohio River backwater area 

 (WVWR 367, verified by R. M. Bailey). This record represents the first 

 report in over 80 years of P. shumardi in the Ohio River, West Virginia. 

 In 1981 another individual was collected from the Ohio River adjacent 

 to Mason County, West Virginia, by personnel of Geo-Marine Inc. (J. 

 A. Pfeiffer, pers. comm.; specimen verified by Pearson). 



Cottus cognatus Richardson, slimy sculpin 



This sculpin is broadly distributed in Canada and the northern Uni- 

 ted States. It is found in certain drainages west of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, the Great Lakes basin, and the north and central Atlantic slope 



