The warrior shiner (''Lythrurus alegnotus'') is a species of fish that is native to
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
.
Description
The shiner has a compressed body with large eyes and dark lips and chin. The upper body of the shiner has dark stripe and dots, and is a light olive color. The shiner is distinguishable from the
blacktip shiner due to the dark strip around the side of the warrior shiner. The shiner is about 7.5 centimeters, with eleven to twelve anal fins. Breeding males have red colored fins.
Taxonomy
It was originally treated 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 ...
of the blacktip shiner. However, it has since been treated as a unique species by a number of sources.
Habitat
The shiner lives in small to medium sized freshwater streams with minimal gradient and
substrate ranging from sand to bedrock. The shiner prefers to live in deep pools that are downstream from
water willows.
The fish mainly lives in the
Black Warrior River
The Black Warrior River is a waterway in west-central Alabama in the southeastern United States. The river rises in the extreme southern edges of the Appalachian Highlands and flows 178 miles (286 km) to the Tombigbee River, of which the Bl ...
system in Alabama. Populations of ''Lythrurus alegnotus'' co-exist with populations of ''
Lythrurus bellus
The pretty shiner (''Lythrurus bellus'') is a freshwater ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae, the carps and minnows. It occurs in the Mobile Bay drainage, and the Tennessee River drainage of the Bear and Yellow Creek systems in Alabama and M ...
'' in Lost Creek in
Walker County, Alabama
Walker County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama.
"ACES Walker County Office" (links/history),
Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES), 2007, webpage:
ACES-Walker
As of the 2020 census, the popu ...
, the
North River, and in
Yellow Creek and
Hurricane Creek in
Tuscaloosa County, Alabama
Tuscaloosa County is a county in the northwest-central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama and is the center of commerce, education, industry, health care, and entertainment for the region.
The county's population was 227,036 as of the 2020 c ...
.
Conservation status
The shiner is rated as
near-threatened
A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...
by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
. Its habitat range is less than 7,500 square kilometers, and many local populations of ''Lythrurus alegnotus'' have gone extinct due to the continued degradation of stream quality and the effects of
strip-mining
Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...
.
The shiner is not considered to be
vulnerable because of the existence of more than ten population centers and the lack of fragmentation in population distribution. However, the IUCN still recommends the continued monitoring of warrior shiner populations and their habitat.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5589177
Lythrurus
Fish described in 1972
Freshwater fish of the United States