West Virginia Fishes 1 15 



Minytrema melanops (Rafinesque), spotted sucker 



This sucker is known from the lower Great Lakes (Erie, Huron and 

 Michigan), throughout the Mississippi, and from the Gulf slope and 

 southern Atlantic coastal basins (Gilbert and Burgess 1980b). Jenkins et 

 al. (1972), Stauffer et al. (1978), and Hendricks et al. (1979) originally 

 considered this species native to the Monogahela River drainage based 

 on the Youghiogheny River record of Schwartz (1964), but the validity 

 of this record is now questioned since no verifiable specimens exist (Gil- 

 bert and Burgess 1980b, Stauffer et al. 1982). The spotted sucker was 

 confirmed in the West Virginia section of this basin by Raney (1947), 

 based on a specimen misidentified as Moxostoma macrolepidotum by 

 Goldsborough and Clark (1908). Although these data support the 

 record of Schwartz (1964), M. melanops has not been recently collected 

 from the Monongahela River drainage. This sucker is still common in 

 other Ohio River drainages of West Virginia (e.g., WVWR 29, 43, 50, 

 87). 

 Noturus gyrinus (Mitchell), tadpole madtom 



The tadpole madtom is found throughout the Mississippi, Gulf 

 coast, and Atlantic slope (including Great Lakes) drainages of North 

 America (Rohde 1980d). Although it is widely distributed in Ohio 

 (Trautman 1981) and is reported in the lower Potomac and James rivers 

 (Stauffer et al. 1982), this species has never been verified from West 

 Virginia waters. Raney (1947) anticipated its occurrence in West Virgin- 

 ia, but Miles (1971) and Denoncourt et al. (1975) listed the species as 

 part of the fauna. This madtom may have been collected from the main 

 channel Ohio River of West Virginia by Krumholz et al. (1962), but no 

 specimens are extant (W. D. Pearson, pers. comm.). The closest records 

 of this species to West Virginia are those of Trautman (1981), only a few 

 kilometers from the state border. Owing to the absence of confirmable 

 records, C. H. Hocutt (pers. comm.) presently regards these species as 

 expected to occur in the state. 

 Etheostoma maculatum maculatum Kirtland, spotted darter 



Zorach and Raney (1967) reviewed the systematics and distribution 

 of the three recognized subspecies that are restricted to the Ohio River 

 drainage: E. m. maculatum, E. m. sanguifluum, and E. m. vulneratum 

 Etnier (1980) noted that the nominate form exhibited a disjunct distri- 

 bution pattern in the Ohio River basin from New York to Kentucky. 

 Schwartz (in Jenkins et al. 1972) reported E. m. maculatum from lower 

 Kanawha River (below Kanawha Falls), but did not substantiate the 

 record. Based on these unverifiable data the species was listed as part of 

 West Virginia's fauna (Miles 1971, Denoncourt et al. 1975). In 1978, 

 WVWR personnel collected three spotted darters in a rotenone sample 



