Desert sucker
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| Desert sucker | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Catostomus clarkii Baird & Girard, 1854 |
The desert sucker, Catostomus clarkii, is a freshwater species of fish in the sucker family that lives in the Great Basin and the Colorado River basin.
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[edit] Description
Desert suckers are bi-colored; the back and upper sides are darker, olive-brown to dark green, and the belly and lower sides are deep-yellow to silvery tan. The scales on the upper half of the body have dark spots which form faint dashed lines. Their head is cylindrical, tapering to a blunt face with the lower lip about three times as thick as upper lip. The mouth is on the underside (ventral) of the face and is proportionately large. The dorsal fin of the desert sucker has 10 to 11 rays. The adult lengths range from 4 inches (102 mm) to 16 inches (406 mm) in smaller streams but up to 31 inches (787 mm) in Arizona.[1] Their weight ranges from 4 oz (110 g) to 65 oz (1,840 g).
[edit] Distribution
The desert sucker occurs in the lower Colorado River basin, below the Grand Canyon, particularly in the Gila River, and above the Grand Canyon in streams in the Virgin River basin, the White River basin and others. Their total range area is estimated at 128,000 km² (49,000 sq mi).[2]
[edit] Habitat
Desert suckers prefer ripply waters, rapids and flowing streams with gravelly bottoms.
[edit] Reproduction
Desert suckers reach maturity in their second year.[3] Spawning occurs in winter and spring from January through May.[4]
[edit] Subspecies
Three subspecies have been identified: the White River Desert Sucker, Catostomus clarkii intermedius[5] (sometimes known as White River Mountain Sucker, Pantosteus intermedius)[6], Virgin River Desert Sucker, Catostomus clarkii utahensis[5][7], and the Meadow Valley Wash Desert Sucker, Catostomus clarkii (unnamed)[8][5].
Some ichthyologists regarded these as members of the genus Pantosteus[6], but later authors regard Pantosteus as a subgenus of Catostomus[9]. There are suggestions of hybridization between Catostomus clarkii and Catostomus insignis.[6]
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Desert Sucker" Arizona Game & Fish
- ^ Pyron, Mark (1999) "Relationships between geographical range size, body size, local abundance, and habitat breadth in North American suckers and sunfishes" Journal of Biogeography 26(3): pp. 549-558, p. 557
- ^ Sublette et al. (1990) p.206
- ^ Lee et al. (1980)
- ^ a b c "DFC North American Fish Index" Desert Fishes Council
- ^ a b c Clarkson and Minckley (1988)
- ^ "Desert sucker: Catostomus clarkii utahensis" Mojave Max
- ^ "Nevada Department of Wildlife LIP Focus Species" Nevada Department of Wildlife
- ^ Sublette et al. (1990)
[edit] References
- Lee, David S. et al. (1980) Atlas of North American Freshwater Fishes North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, Patricia Ledlie Bookseller Inc, ISBN 0-917134-03-6
- Clarkson, Robert W. and Minckley, W. L. (1988) "Morphology and foods of Arizona catostomid Fishes: Catostomus insignis, Pantosteus clarki, and their putative hybrids" Copeia 1988: pp. 422-433
- Sublette, James E.; Hatch, Michael D. and Sublette, Mary (1990) "Catostomus (Pantosteus) clarki
- Baird and Girard - desert sucker" The Fishes of New Mexico University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 205-207, ISBN 0-8263-1179-2
- Smith, G. R. 1992. "Phylogeny and biogeography of the Catostomidae, freshwater fishes of North America and Asia" Pages 778-826 In Mayden, R. L. (ed.) (1992) Systematics, historical ecology, and North American freshwater fishes Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, California, ISBN 0-8047-2162-9
[edit] External links
- "Catostomus clarkii" ITIS
- Fishbase
- "Catostomus clarkii" NatureServe search with "Catostomus clarkii" as search term.
