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

Percidae

Johnny Darter

Etheostoma nigrum Rafinesque, the johnny darter, was reported from the "North Red River" near latitude 46° in 1857 (SI 1994). Woolman (1896) reported the species from the Goose, Maple, Sheyenne, Otter Tail, Buffalo, and Red Lake rivers, where it was more abundant than all other darters in the region; Hankinson (1928) listed Boleosoma nigrum from the Red, Pembina, Park, and Sheyenne rivers; and Hubbs and Schultz reported it from the Sheyenne River at Valley City in 1926 (UMMZ 1994) (Figure A70). Other early records include that by Olson (1932), who reported the species from the Buffalo, Wild Rice, Sandhill, Red Lake, and Clearwater Rivers in Minnesota, and that of Deason and Nelson, who found it in the Mud and Tamarack Rivers, tributaries to lower Red Lake, in 1938 (UMMZ 1994). It has been taken at 39% of stream sites sampled in the Red River basin since 1962 and has been present at 67% of sites in the NMW ecoregion (Table 4). The species has been abundant in site collections, with 30-40 individuals typically taken at reaches of the Goose, Turtle, Forest, and Two Rivers and 190 individuals found at a site on the Sheyenne River west of Pekin. It has typically been much less abundant in reaches of the Otter Tail, Buffalo, and Red Lake Rivers in the eastern basin, where collections of 2-7 individuals have been common.

Figure A70. Distribution of the johnny darter in streams of the Red River of the North basin.

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