Distribution of Fishes in the Red River of the North Basin on Multivariate Environmental Gradients

Percidae

Blackside Darter

Percina maculata (Girard), the blackside darter, was reported from the "North Red River" near latitude 46° and the Maple River in 1857 (SI 1994). Woolman (1896) listed Etheostoma aspro from the Red, Pembina, Park, Forest, Goose, Maple, Otter Tail, Buffalo, and Red Lake Rivers, where it was rare to common, and the Sheyenne River, where it was abundant at Valley City and Lisbon (Figure A73). Hankinson (1928) listed Hadropterus maculatus from the Red, Pembina, and Sheyenne Rivers; and Hubbs and Schultz reported it from the Sheyenne River at Valley City in 1926 (UMMZ 1994). Other early records are by Olson (1932), who reported it from the Wild Rice and Red Lake Rivers in Minnesota, and by Deason and Nelson, who collected it from the Mud River, a tributary to lower Red Lake, in 1938 (UMMZ 1994). The blackside darter has been reported from mouth to headwaters in nearly every stream in the Red River basin. It has been taken at 32% of the stream sites sampled in the Red River basin since 1962 and has been present at 64% of the sites in the NMW ecoregion (Table 4). Most site collections from western basin tributaries have contained 1-10 individuals; but the species has been quite abundant in the Roseau River, where collections of over 100 individuals have been common, and the Otter Tail River near Phelps, where as many as 367 individuals were obtained.

Figure A73. Distribution of the blackside darter in streams of the Red River of the North basin.

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