(Percidae: Etheostoma), with Descriptions of Five New Species

12 Bulletin 30 NOVEMBER 1, 2012Figure 5. Distribution of nine species of Doration. Type localities of the five new species are indicated by stars. Starsand dots show localities of material examined. Some dots represent more than one locality. Species are identifiedin legend on map. Map provided by Division of Fishes, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology and used withpermission.it occurs in the Ouachita River below the Fall Line, lowerWhite River as far upstream as (and including) BuffaloRiver, Little Red River, Black River, St. Francis River, CastorRiver, and lowland drainage ditches of southeasternMissouri. To the east E. stigmaeum occurs in direct tributariesof the Mississippi River from southeastern Louisianato the Hatchie River in southwestern Tennessee. Inthe Tennessee drainage it occurs in Clarks River and JonathanCreek in western Kentucky, and Bear Creek in northwesternAlabama.Records of E. stigmaeum from the Sabine River systemin Louisiana could not be verified. The five lots examinedwere misidentified specimens of either E. chlorosoma(NLU 14752,57493,57497; UT 91.1377) or E. whipplei(NLU 56431). The single lot examined by Howell (1968;NLU 4439, formerly NLSC 4439) could not be locatedbut was presumably identified correctly, as all five specimenspossessed 2 anal spines, ruling out the likelihoodthat they could have been E. chlorosoma (1 anal spine).Comments.—Howell’s (1968) original concept of E.stigmaeum as a polytypic species was largely based on hisinterpretation of a small contact zone between nominalE. stigmaeum and E. jessiae in the Bear Creek system of theTennessee River drainage in northwestern Alabama. Sixof 12 specimens he examined from Little Bear Creek possesseda frenum, which he considered the most distinctivecharacter separating E. stigmaeum (frenum absent) andE. jessiae (frenum present). He therefore concluded thatthese were intergrades, and as such, provided evidence ofincomplete reproductive isolation between the two taxa.However, our analysis of meristic, breeding color, and allozymedata discussed below under “CONTACT ZONES”indicates that the Little Bear Creek population actuallyrepresents “pure” E. jessiae.