The northern sunfish (''Lepomis peltastes'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine conditions in many ways, especially the difference in levels of s ...

in the sunfish

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

(

Centrarchidae Centrarchidae, better known as sunfishes, is a family of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes (formerly belonging to the deprecated order Centrarchiformes), native only to North America. There are eight universally inc ...

) of

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Perciformes Perciformes (), also called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish. If considered a single order, they are the most numerous order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of all bony fish. Perciformes means ...

. ''Lepomis peltastes'' was traditionally recognized as a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

longear sunfish The longear sunfish (''Lepomis megalotis'') is a freshwater fish in the sunfish family, Centrarchidae, of order Perciformes. It is native to the area of eastern North America stretching from the Great Lakes down to northeastern Mexico.Berra, Tim ...

(''Lepomis megalotis'') but is often considered to be a separate species. However, this change remains controversial.

Identification

The northern sunfish (''Lepomis peltastes'') and the

(''Lepomis megalotis'') contain very few physical variations. Both are generally small, vibrantly scaled fish with bright, elongated opercular flaps which give the fish an appearance of an "ear", which is a key factor in differentiating the two fishes. The opercular flaps of ''Lepomis peltastes'' tend to have an outline of white and red, while ''Lepomis megalotis'' outlines are strictly white. Although each species coloration is nearly identical, the patterns which form from these colors are not. The northern sunfish tends to have more of a lateral stripe and speckled turquoise pattern along its sides, while the longear sunfish tends to have spotting on its sides, still in turquoise. Each fish also has "war paint" all the way from the mouth to the edge of the

gill A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...

flap in the same color as the speckles or spots. Both also contain olive sides and bright orange bellies. These few differences between ''Lepomis peltastes'' and ''Lepomis megalotis'' leave these fish incredibly hard to distinguish from one another. In all other aspects, these fish look near identical. The northern sunfish is usually regarded as a subspecies of the longear sunfish due to little and/or improper justification as to why this fish should be elevated as a separate species. The assertion, brought about by

Carl Leavitt Hubbs Carl Leavitt Hubbs (October 19, 1894 – June 30, 1979) was an American ichthyologist. Biography Youth He was born in Williams, Arizona. He was the son of Charles Leavitt and Elizabeth (née Goss) Hubbs. His father had a wide variety of jobs (f ...

over three decades ago, has yet to be clarified with

ichthyologists Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of October ...

Habitat and range

Northern sunfish, as the name suggests, inhabits the northernmost portions of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, such as the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

and the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

Region, as well as the

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

, and portions of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. This fish is found in generally small, quiet, temperate streams or rivers with sandy banks or rocky bottoms. It prefers to be near vegetation where they can avoid strong currents.

Diet

Northern sunfish are more

omnivorous An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nutri ...

than other sunfishes, but mostly feed on

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s and other

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

found in or near the water. They have been known to prey on

mites Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear evid ...

, micro

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

fish egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

mollusks Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

filamentous algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular micro ...

, and smaller fish. ''Lepomis peltastes'' is well known for feeding at the water's surface more frequently than other sunfish.

Conservation

''Lepomis peltastes'' is listed as threatened (since 1979) by the state of Wisconsin. This is the only state with a formal recognition of this status condition. High water turbidity, agricultural runoff and pollution could be factors in this. Minnesota evaluated the fish's spotty distribution in their streams, and reported that ''Lepomis peltastes'' was dependent on incredibly specific water conditions.Ceas, Patrick, and Jean Porterfield. "Minnesota State Wildlife Grants Program." Life Histories of the Northern Longear Sunfish (Lepomis Megalotis Peltastes) and Pugnose Shiner (Notropis Anogenus) in Minnesota, with Examinations of Other Rare Non-game Fishes (2012): 1+. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Minnesota State DNR, 2012. Web. 5 May 2015.
Minnesota State Wildlife Grants Program (Lepomis megalotis peltastes)>
/ref> A push to list the species as special concern has risen from Minnesota's findings.

References

{{Authority control Lepomis Fish described in 1870 Freshwater fish of North America Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope