Croatan National Forest Fishes 
111 
DISCUSSION 
Fifty-one species of freshwater fishes representing 16 families have been 
identified as occurring in or near the Croatan National Forest (Table 2, 
plus Petromyzon mannus). Four additional species ( Notropis altipinnis, En- 
neacanthus chaetodon, Lepomis marginatus, L. punctatus ) possibly occur there. 
Sunfishes (Centrarchidae), well suited to the slow-moving, vegetated 
waters of the Croatan National Forest, are the most speciose family with 
12 species. Minnows (Cyprinidae) are also well represented with ten 
species, but none is common. 
Although major sections of the White Oak and Newport rivers are con- 
tained in the forest, their faunas do not contribute as much to the overall 
diversity as does the fauna of the Neuse River, which drains only a very 
small part of the overall area. Forty-six species were collected in the 
Neuse drainage, including 12 not taken in the Newport or White Oak 
rivers. The Trent River, a tributary of the Neuse, forms the northern 
boundary of the forest and accounts for much of the diversity. Eight of the 
12 species confined to the Neuse drainage were taken only in the Trent or 
its tributaries. The Newport and White Oak rivers had 33 and 34 species 
respectively, of which only 3 were unique to one or the other system. 
Our examination of fishes in the three Croatan National Forest 
drainages prompted a review of the distributions of lowland (lower 
Coastal Plain) fishes throughout North Carolina. Most distributional 
data were obtained from regional faunal summaries (Jenkins et al. 1972; 
Jenkins et al. 1975; Menhinick, ms) and systematic revisions (e.g. 
Collette 1962; Snelson 1968; Yerger and Relyea 1968; Sweeney 1972), 
but some unpublished records are based on collections of ours. Nine ma- 
jor rivers drain into coastal North Carolina estuaries, including one (the 
Cape Fear) that is composed of two systems on the Coastal Plain (Fig 2). 
Some (e.g. the Shallotte, New, White Oak, and Newport rivers) are small 
drainages confined to the lower reaches of the Coastal Plain, whereas 
others (e.g. the Cape Fear, Neuse, Tar, and Roanoke rivers) are more ex- 
tensive and originate in the Piedmont or the Appalachian Mountains. 
The following discussion concerns fishes of those rivers lying totally or in 
part below the Fall Line in North Carolina. 
Nineteen species reach the northern termini of their distribution ranges 
on the Coastal Plain of North Carolina or in nearby southeastern Virginia 
(Table 4, plus Micropterus salmoides salmoides and Etheostoma serriferum). The 
greatest faunal break occurs between the Cape Fear and the more 
northern drainages, with eight terminations in the combined Cape Fear- 
Northeast Cape Fear systems (see Jenkins et al. 1972 for additional dis- 
cussion of this break). Five species terminate in the Chowan River in 
North Carolina and Virginia (Jenkins et al. 1975). Only four fishes 
