ANNOTATED LIST OF FISHES 



133 



The long-eared sunfish at Greenwood was found only in deep, clear waters, although at Augusta, 

 Ga. (Hildebrand, 1923, p. 6), it occurred in densely overgrown brickyard ponds and also in cer- 

 tain borrow pits along the levee of the Savannah River. Its form does not indicate an especially 

 active fish. 



Midge larvae constituted the bulk of the food found in eight specimens examined. The larva; 

 were supplemented by water boatmen (Corixa), with a small quantity of miscellaneous material. 

 The intestine is equal to one-half the total length of the fish. 



Spawning fish were taken in August and September. The eggs appear to be less numerous 

 but of larger size than those of the other members of this family. A female 93 millimeters long 

 contained approximately 1,000 nearly mature eggs that exceeded 1 millimeter in diameter. The 

 sexes are readily distinguished in mature fish by the nuchal hump in the male. 



Eleven specimens, ranging from 62 to 122 millimeters (2^ to 4^5 inches) in total length, 

 were collected from an artesian well overflow and a slough at Browning and from Roebuck Lake. 



Fig. 9.— Lepomis megalotis (male) 



37. Lepomis symmetricus Forbes 



Symmetrical sunfish 



Lepomis symmetricus Forbes, in Jordan and Gilbert, Bull., U. S. Nat. Mus., XVI, 1883, p. 473. 



We refer two small specimens, 51 and 56 millimeters (2 and 2}/$ inches) in length, to this 

 species, both taken in a borrow pit on the Itta Bena Road. The fish probably is rare locally. 

 This species appears to be characterized by the symmetrical body, both the dorsal and ventral 

 outlines being about equally curved. Other distinctive characters are the rather long gill rakers, 

 which are about nine in number and about half the length of the eye; the incomplete lateral line, 

 with several pores missing on the arched portion, interrupted posteriorly and resumed on middle 

 of side of caudal peduncle; the moderately long, pointed pectoral fins, reaching slightly beyond 

 origin of anal; and the characteristic vertically elongate dark spots on the base of some of the 

 scales (described in Forbes's original description as "vertical dark bars"). The specimens at hand 

 have the caudal fin distinctly emarginate, as originally described by Forbes, not round, as shown 

 in a drawing published by Evermann and Kendall (1894, PI. XXXII, fig. 2) and republished by 

 Jordan and Evermann (1896-1900, PI. CLIX, fig. 424), based on a fish caught in Texas. The 

 dorsal has X, 10 rays; anal III, 10; scales 33. 



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