NEW GENUS OF DARTER FROM WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA 1 
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By R. E. COKER, Ph. D., University of North Carolina 
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INTRODUCTION 
Three specimens of darter collected in Paddys Creek, a tributary of the Catawba 
River in Burke County, N. C., in August, 1922, can not be referred to an established 
genus, at least in so far as genera are recognized and described by Jordan and Ever- 
ma nn in Bulletin 47 of the United States National Museum. They appear to be 
more nearly related to Poecilichthys ( Etheostoma ) Jlabellare than to any other described 
species. Flabellare is apparently an even more variable species than others of the 
tribe of darters, and the writer has considered the possibility that these specimens 
represent an extreme variation of the flabellare form. This is conceivably so, but 
to place the Paddys Creek specimens in the genus Poecilichthys (Etheostoma of 
Bulletin 47) would do violence to the principal criteria of that genus and merely 
cause additional confusion in the taxonomy of a group of fishes that already pre- 
sents sufficient difficulty. 2 However loosely connected may be the various mem- 
bers of the genus Poecilichthys as it now stands, the breaking up of the genus could 
not be attempted without an elaborate study in which consideration would have 
to be given to the validity of several other genera now standing independently. 
In these circumstances, the writer proposes for the new fish from Paddys Creek 
the genus Richiella, type Richiella brevispina. 3 
Richiella brevispina differs from Poecilichthys principally in that the parietal 
region of the skull is depressed and not strongly convex in section, the belly is not 
covered with ordinary scales, the back before the dorsal fin, as well as the entire 
head, is naked, and the dorsal fin has but 6 or 7 spines, as contrasted with the 9 or 
more characteristic of the genus Poecilichthys. Doubtless no one of these char- 
acters is of decisive weight by itself; certainly not the last mentioned, for a very 
few species of the genus Poecilichthys may have 8 spines in the dorsal, and a single 
species, iowse, may have as few as 7 dorsal spines; but the last-mentioned species 
seems to have the typical squamation of belly and sides of head. No species of 
1 The specimens were collected while the author was in the service of the United States Bureau of Fisheries. 
a Jordan, in Copeia, No. 29, April 12, 1916, suggests that several of the subgenera recognized by Jordan and Evermann in Bulle- 
tin 47 probably should stand as valid genera, in which case flabellare would be assigned to the genus Catonotus. If, however, the 
genus called Etheostoma (now Poecilichthys) shall continue to be used in a broad sense to include flabellare and many other species, 
the name Poecilichthys, according to Jordan, must displace Etheostoma. See also Jordan and Evermann, "The Genera of Fishes,” 
Part I, p. 110. 
» Richiella in honor of Dr. Willis H. Rich, in charge of scientific inquiry, Bureau of Fisheries; brevispina, referring to the low 
dorsal spines 
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