152 
James D. Williams and Henry W. Robison 
Distribution. — The geographic range of the five species of the subgenus 
Ozarka is centered in the Ozark Mountains Physiographic Region. The 
species are found from eastern Colorado {E. cragini) to southeastern Ten- 
nessee and northwestern Georgia {E. trisella). They are allopatric except 
for E. punctulatum and E. cragini, which are sympatric in southwestern 
Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma. Etheostoma punctulatum, E. 
cragini, and E. pallididorsum are found west of the Mississippi Embay- 
ment, and E. boschungi and E. trisella east of the Embayment. None of 
the species is known from the Coastal Plain Province. 
The stippled darter, Etheostoma punctulatum, is known from the 
Arkansas River drainage in northwestern Arkansas (Buchanan 1973), 
northeastern Oklahoma (Miller and Robison 1973), extreme south- 
eastern Kansas (Cross 1967), and southern Missouri (Pflieger 1975). It 
also occurs in the Missouri River drainage in central Missouri and the 
Castor River system, tributary to the Mississippi River, in southeastern 
Missouri (Pflieger 1975) as well as in the White River drainage of 
southern Missouri and northern Arkansas (Buchanan 1973; Pflieger 
1975). Distribution of the Arkansas darter, E. cragini, is in the Arkansas 
River drainage from eastern Colorado (Ellis 1914; Ellis and Jaffa 1918), 
southern Kansas (Cross 1967), northeastern Oklahoma (Miller and 
Robison 1973), and extreme southwestern Missouri (Pflieger 1975). In 
the original description, E. pallididorsum was reported from the Caddo 
River of the Ouachita River drainage in western Arkansas (Distler and 
Metcalf 1962). Robison (1974a) reported an additional population from 
the upper Ouachita River drainage. 
East of the Mississippi Embayment, Etheostoma boschungi is known 
from widely separate tributaries of the Tennessee River in western Ten- 
nessee and northern Alabama (Wall and Williams 1974). Etheostoma 
trisella is known from isolated localities in the Coosa River drainage in 
northeastern Alabama (Bailey and Richards 1963; Ramsey 1976), 
northwest Georgia (Howell and Caldwell 1967), and southeastern Ten- 
nessee (Etnier 1970). Based on available distributional data, E. trisella 
has the most limited distribution of the species in the subgenus. The only 
extant population known is in the Conasauga River near the Tennessee- 
Georgia border. 
Habitat. — Members of the subgenus Ozarka typically inhabit gentle 
riffles and slackwater areas of small to medium-size shallow, upland 
tributary streams. Etheostoma punctulatum is generally restricted to 
small, clear, moderate to high gradient permanent streams or spring 
branches with substrates of gravel or rubble (Blair 1959; Miller and 
Robison 1973; Pflieger 1971, 1975). It is frequently found in vegetation or 
in detritus in quiet side pools and backwaters away from the main current 
(Branson 1967). Moore and Paden (1950) reported that this form was 
taken principally in heavily vegetated springs with slight gradient and in 
small leaf-filled indentations along the shore. 
