GREAT LAKES COREGONIDS 



449 



BREEDING HABITS 



No spawning Jciyi have been taken. Males collected on July 19 and 21, 1921, 

 off Wilson, N. Y., were pearled, and females showed well-developed ova, although 

 none were by any means ripe. Males and females taken on September 4, 1923, 

 off Oswego, N. Y., were spent, but the males still showed pearl organs. Females 

 from the University of Toronto collection taken off Port Credit, Ontario, on March 

 28, 1926, showed ovaries that had not been spent recently. It is apparent, then, 

 that the spawning season for the species must fall in August or thereabouts. At 

 what depths or on what bottom the eggs are laid is not known. 



LEUCICHTHYS HOYI Gill 



The Bloater (Fig. 23) 



Argyrosomus hoyi Gill, in Hoy, 1872, p. 99, Lake Michigan off Racine; Milner, 1874, pp. 86-87, 

 in part, Lake Superior; not of Evermann and Smith, 1896; not of Jordan and Evermann, 

 1911. 



Argyrosomus prognathus Evermann and Smith, 1896, pp. 314-317, in part, Lakes Huron and 

 Michigan. 



Leucichthys johannse Jordan and Evermann, 1911, pp. 24-26, in part, Lakes Huron and Michigan; 

 not Pis. Ill or V. 



Leucichthys Jioyi has been described from Lake Michigan but occurs also in Lakes 

 Nipigon, Superior, Huron, and Ontario. In all five bodies of water it is character- 

 ized by its relatively small size, which is seldom over a maximum of 200 millimeters 

 except in two of the lakes (Michigan and Ontario), where it grows regularly large 

 enough to be of commercial importance; its terete body form, as seen from the side, 

 and relatively few lateral-line scales. The Nipigon race differs chiefly in having, 

 on the average, a higher number of gill rakers on the first branchial arch and of scales 

 in the lateral line, and a proportionally longer head, eye, maxillary, and paired fins. 

 The Superior form has a proportionally larger head and eye and longer paired fins 

 and maxillary. The Huron form differs but little in its systematic characters. In 

 Lake Ontario the species seems to be different chiefly in having, on the average, 

 more gill rakers, a proportionally smaller eye, and possibly a somewhat longer head 

 and pectorals. All forms, so far as has been ascertained, prefer relatively shallow 

 water, namely, depths of about 30 fathoms except in Lake Ontario, where they have 

 been found most commonly between 50 and 60 fathoms. The breeding habits are 

 but imperfectly or not at all known, but in Lakes Michigan and Huron the species 

 spawns in late February and early March, and in the other lakes it is known that it 

 does not spawn before December. 



Type 



A specimen about 137 millimeters long has been selected from two mutilated 

 specimens in the United States National Museum, both bearing the type No. 8902, 

 collected in Lake Michigan off Racine, Wis., probably in March, 1872, by Dr. P. R. 

 Hoy. The reasons for making this selection are given on page 312. 



Leucichthys hoyi of Lake Michigan 



The bloater is probably the commonest Leucichthys in Lake Michigan. It 

 is one of the smallest members of the genus in the Great Lakes Basin, but in Lake 

 Michigan it is taken abundantly in the 23^-inch chub nets and also in some numbers 



