Ozarka, A New Subgenus of Etheostoma 
(Pisces: Percidae) 
James D. Williams 
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
Office of Endangered Species, Washington, D. C. 20240 
AND 
Henry W. Robison 
Department of Biological Sciences, 
Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia, Arkansas 71753 
ABSTRACT. — A new subgenus of Etheostoma is diagnosed and briefly 
described. It consists of five species, Etheostoma punctulatum, E. cragini, 
E. pallididorsum, E. boschungi, and E. trisella, which have similar 
breeding colors, tubercle patterns and spawning habitats. The species 
are distributed from the Arkansas River drainage in Colorado to the up- 
per Coosa River drainage in north Georgia and southeast Tennessee. 
Distribution, dispersal and relationships of the species are discussed, 
and a key to the species is presented. 
INTRODUCTION 
The nominal darter genera were reduced to four {Ammocrypta Jor- 
dan, Etheostoma Rafinesque, Hadropterus Agassiz, and Percina 
Haldeman) by Bailey (1951) and further reduced to three {Ammocrypta, 
Etheostoma, and Percina) by Bailey (in Bailey et al. 1954). Bailey and 
Gosline (1955), in a review of the vertebral counts of American percids, 
placed the 70 species of Etheostoma in 12 subgenera {Boleosoma, loa, 
Etheostoma, Ulocentra, Allohistium, Nothonotus, Oligocephalus, 
Austroperca, Psychromaster, Catonotus, Hololepis, and Microperca). 
Based primarily on the presence and distribution of breeding tubercles, 
Collette and Yerger (1962) and Collette (1965) recognized an additional 
subgenus, Villora. The most recent works by Collette and Banarescu 
(1977) and Page (1977) recognized the additional subgenera Doration, 
Litocara, and Vaillantia, for a total of sixteen. 
The subgenus Oligocephalus is the most wide-ranging, large, struc- 
turally diverse (Bailey and Richards 1973), complex, and speciose (Ram- 
sey and Suttkus 1965) subgenus of Etheostoma. Bailey and Gosline (1955) 
assigned 19 species and Collette (1965) 21 species to this subgenus. Ram- 
sey and Suttkus ( 1 965) discussed the E. asprigene species group within the 
subgenus Oligocephalus. 
The purpose of this paper is to remove E. punctulatum, E. cragini, E. 
pallididorsum, and E. boschungi from the subgenus Oligocephalus, and E. 
trisella from the subgenus Psychromaster, and to erect a subgenus for 
these closely related species. The close relationship among E. punc- 
tulatum, E. cragini, and E. pallididorsum was first recognized by Blair 
(1964). Wall and Williams (1974) described E. boschungi and presented 
additional data clarifying the relationships among E. boschungi, E. 
punctulatum, E. cragini, and E. pallididorsum. 
Brimleyana No. 4: 149-156. December 1980. 
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