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Three New Darters Described


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#1 Guest_AC-Editor_*

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Posted 15 August 2007 - 09:31 AM

Three new species of Percina are described from upland drainages of the Mobile Basin. Two of the three species are narrowly distributed: P. kusha, the Bridled Darter, is currently known only from the Conasauga River drainage in Georgia and Tennessee and Etowah River drainage in Georgia, both tributaries of the Coosa River, and P. sipsi, the Bankhead Darter, which is restricted to tributaries of Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior River in northwestern Alabama. The third species, P. smithvanizi, the Muscadine Darter, occurs above the Fall Line in the Tallapoosa River drainage in eastern Alabama and western Georgia. In a molecular analysis using mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence data, P. kusha and P. smithvanizi were recovered as sister species, while Percina sipsi was recovered in a clade consisting of P. aurolineata (P. sciera + P. sipsi). Two of the three species, P. kusha and P. sipsi, are considered to be imperiled species and are in need of conservation actions to prevent their extinction. Description of these three darters increases the number of described species of Percina to 44. Sixteen are known to occur in the Mobile Basin, including nine that are endemic.

PDF of full paper is available here:

http://www.mapress.c...zt01549p028.pdf

NANFA checklist updated here:

http://nanfa.org/checklist.shtml

Chris Scharpf
NANFA

#2 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 15 August 2007 - 01:59 PM

Great work Dave!

Nice stuff, thanks for posting it Chris.

My one regret from my dive on the Conasauga this spring was that I didn't take time to get any stills. Guess I'll have to go back :)

Todd

#3 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 16 August 2007 - 10:52 PM

Two of the three species, P. kusha and P. sipsi, are considered to be imperiled species and are in need of conservation actions to prevent their extinction.



What, already?!

#4 Guest_edbihary_*

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Posted 18 August 2007 - 08:20 AM

I think it's safe to assume all newly described species are imperiled, unless there's reason to believe otherwise. If they've just been discovered, there's probably a reason for that - like they're rare. If they're common, and commonly known, just broken out of another species, then maybe they're not imperiled, just newly classified. Until I know the difference, I would be inclined to not touch them, just in case they may be truly imperiled.

#5 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 18 August 2007 - 10:03 AM

Not at all. I would say most newly described species are safe and sound, you just hear more about the ones that aren't. Let's just say the earth didn't move when the longjaw shiner, Notropis amplamala, was described. There are many more like it. I personally haven't gotten all the splits in the orangethroat clades down. Texts just aren't going to be able to keep up with the amounts of work being done.

So, the bridled darters are really an exception, even when everyone is trying to work on the most imperilled species. Then again, so is most everything in the Mobile Bay drainage. If Metee or someone updates his text in 15 years, that book will be twice as thick. You can get a good idea of what the difference is in comparing Metee against all the cf sp. accounts in Mayden and Boschung.

What's the ethical thing to do with all this going on in the background? If you don't know what something is, take a picture and release it. No one needs any fish :)

Todd

#6 Guest_edbihary_*

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Posted 18 August 2007 - 12:22 PM

What's the ethical thing to do with all this going on in the background? If you don't know what something is, take a picture and release it. No one needs any fish :)

That's really what I was trying to say. Thanks for helping out and wording it more clearly.

#7 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 19 August 2007 - 09:43 PM

I knew there was something different about those silverjaws I get around here.

Some thing with N. longirostris - common as dirt but definitely not quite the same as longirostris.

#8 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 20 August 2007 - 07:38 AM

Yeah this was a slam dunk project when you look at the distribution of the species. There are many more like this, perhaps a little more nuanced, but definately different.

I knew there was something different about those silverjaws I get around here.






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