The American Darters

Seasonal and diel drift of fish were studied in the fifth order of the Illinois River, Arkansas during 1980–1982 to assess the inclination of the various species (ca. 60) in the community (and size groups within species) to drift and to determine their diel and seasonal periodicities of drift. Eighteen taxa were identified from the drift. Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) and flathead catfish (Pylodictus olivaris) alevins represented 57% and 12% of the drift respectively. Slender madtom catfish (Noturus exilis) were abundant in the riffle studied but none were collected in the drift. Larval fish drifted from late April through late August with a peak on 23–24 June when an estimated 37,203 drifted through the study area. A distinct diel pattern was observed with peaks at 2300 and 0300 hours. Drifting larvae were more abundant near the surface and margins with catfish alevins on the deep side and cyprinids, sunfishes, and all prolarvae on the shallow side of the stream. Post-larval development ...

Propensity to Drift Downstream among Various Species of Fish

Fish species richness in floodplain pools results from species addition by spring invasion from the stream and species subtraction by local extinction throughout the summer. Local extinction is the...

Structure and ecological production of the fish taxocene of a small floodplain system

The darters comprise an important group of the temperate freshwater fish fauna of the Atlantic drainage of North America. These fishes make up the subfamily Etheostomatinae in the Percidae and over one half of the almost one hundred species are confined to the Mississippi River drainage. A wide variety of breeding habits is exhibited by this group of fishes. It is the purpose of this paper to present the field and laboratory observations on the reproductive behavior of fourteen species and to relate each to the previously published data. Adequate reviews of the literature on the biology of these fish have been published (Raney and Lachner, 1939; Fahy, 1954). Except for the comprehensive study of the greenside darter by Fahy (1954) the literature consists of only brief papers on biology and life histories. The information presented here along with data on habitat, sex ratio, migration, territory, sex recognition, and eggs has been treated comparatively by Winn (1955).

Observation on the Reproductive Habits of Darters (Pisces-Percidae)

The upper Speed River, on which a dam was under construction, was surveyed through fourteen qualitative and six quantitative collections to determine the distribution of fishes in the river above Guelph, Ontario and in a tributary, Luteral Creek. At the quantitative localities the removal method was used to estimate density and standing crop of all species. At three of these localities age and growth of the dominant species were determined and total ecological production calculated.

Charles T. Lake

Papers

The Life History of the Fan-Tailed Darter Catonotus flabellaris flabellaris (Rafinesque)