176 Branley A. Branson 



A large percentage of the fishes in southern Indiana and adjacent 

 Illinois and Kentucky are of southern or lowland origin, many of them 

 doubtless gaining entry in post-glacial times by migration through the 

 Ohio River and its tributaries. Illinois, for example, has two species 

 complexes that are coincidental with the Mississippi and Ohio river 

 drainages, respectively (Forbes 1909; Smith 1979), entering the area via 

 the Wabash and smaller Ohio River tributaries. Included in this list are: 

 Ichthyomyzon bdellium (Jordan), Lampetra aepyptera (Abbott), No- 

 tropis atherinoides Rafinesque, N. fumeus Evermann, N. shumardi 

 (Girard), N. venustus (Girard), N. volucellus (Cope), Ericymba buccata 

 Cope, Nocomis micropogon (Cope), Hybopsis amblops (Rafinesque), 

 H. gracilis (Richardson), H. meeki Jordan and Evermann, Noturus fla- 

 vus Rafinesque, N. miurus Jordan, N. eleutherus Jordan, N. stigmosus 

 Taylor, Fundulus olivaceus (Storer), Aphredoderus say anus (Gilliams), 

 Lepomis megalotis (Rafinesque), Centrarchus macropterus (Lacepede), 

 Micropterus punctulatus (Rafinesque), Elassoma zonatum Jordan, 

 Ammocrypta pellucida (Putnam), Percina ouachitae (Jordan and Gil- 

 bert), Etheostoma blennioides Rafinesque, E. fusiforme (Girard), E. 

 histrio (Jordan and Gilbert), E. kennicotti (Putnam), E. proeliare (Hay), 

 and E. squamiceps Jordan. Properly speaking, Etheostoma proeliare is 

 a fish of the Coastal Plains and Mississippi Embayment (Burr and Page 

 1978), as is E. fusiforme (Sisk 1973), and the distributional center of 

 the subgenus Ammocrypta appears to have been in the Lower Missis- 

 sippi basin (Williams 1975). In the Low Plateau region, A. pellucida is 

 the most widespread member, but A. clara Jordan and Meek is known 

 from the Green River in Kentucky. Fundulus chrysotus (Giinther), 

 Notropis maculatus (Hay), and Menidia beryllina (Cope) are all distinc- 

 tive Gulf Coastal Plains fishes that barely impinge upon the Low Pla- 

 teau in Kentucky without actually penetrating its drainages (Sisk 1973; 

 Baker 1939; Burr and Mayden 1979). 



As stated previously, in Kentucky the Land Between the Lakes 

 region (Lower Tennessee-Lower Cumberland rivers) separates the Low 

 Plateau from the Gulf Coastal Plains. The mix of fishes in this area 

 reflects the various centers of origin; some examples are presented in 

 Table 2 (McDonough 1974; Resh et al. 1972). A similar picture is pre- 

 sented by a partial list of fishes from Reelfoot Lake (Table 3), which 

 barely laps northward into Kentucky (Parker 1939; Baker 1939). Some 

 of the fishes in this area and elsewhere in the Low Plateau gained access 

 to the region from the north, possibly via a temporary post- Wisconsin 

 connection between the Erie and Wabash drainages, and Indiana's 

 White and Big Blue drainages (Gerking 1945). They include Umbra limi 

 (Kirtland), Rhinichthys atratulus (Hermann), Percopsis omiscomaycus 

 (Walbaum), and Fundulus catenatus (Storer). Jordan (1877) reported 



