The longnose darter (''Percina nasuta'') is a species of freshwater

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or h ...

, a darter from the subfamily

Etheostomatinae Etheosomatidae is a species rich subfamily of freshwater ray-finned fish, the members of which are commonly known as the darters. The subfamily is part of the family Percidae which also includes the perches, ruffes and pikeperches. The family i ...

, part of the

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

Percidae The Percidae are a family of ray-finned fish, part of the order Perciformes, which are found in fresh and brackish waters of the Northern Hemisphere. The majority are Nearctic, but there are also Palearctic species. The family contains more ...

, which also contains the

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Per ...

es, ruffes and pikeperches. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to 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 territori ...

Appearance & Autonomy

The longnose darter is mostly yellow with a stripe of dark blotches down the lateral line. It has a bright yellow stripe on a mostly translucent first dorsal fin, and a block spot at the center of the base of the caudal fin. The rays of the second dorsal fin and the caudal fin are black and yellow striped like the color pattern along the lateral line. This fish can be characterized by a long, pointed snout that can be darker colored than the rest of its body and has been recorded to reach lengths of up to 11 cm.

Distribution

Longnose darters are known to occur in thirteen different streams in three river systems across the southern Missouri

Ozarks The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant port ...

and the

Ouachita mountains The Ouachita Mountains (), simply referred to as the Ouachitas, are a mountain range in western Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. They are formed by a thick succession of highly deformed Paleozoic strata constituting the Ouachita Fold and Thru ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

and eastern Oklahoma. Populations are sporadic and occur in small pockets in these streams and seem to only dwell in upland environments.

Habitat & Life History

These darters are

to upland streams and prefer riffles and pools with clean gravel and boulders to spawn and inhabits the slower pools over sand and silt in the fall. Like most darters, they spawn in clean, silt free crevices and males guard the nest until eggs are hatched.

Diet

Not much is known about diet, but it is speculated that adults consume macro-invertebrates.

Threats

Like any species that requires clean, rocky substrate, the longnose darter is susceptible to

siltation Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate Terrestrial ecoregion, terrestrial Clastic rock, clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the ...

. Runoff is also an issue, as fertilizers and other chemicals have the potential to change the pH or

dissolved oxygen Oxygen saturation (symbol SO2) is a relative measure of the concentration of oxygen that is dissolved or carried in a given medium as a proportion of the maximal concentration that can be dissolved in that medium at the given temperature. It ca ...

levels in the water. The construction of dams and reservoirs are likely to have contributed to the isolation of the different populations. This species has been proposed to be listed as Near Threatened by Warren et al. (2000) because of how fragmented the populations are, but the IUCN lists them as a species of Least Concern. Longnose darters are listed as endangered in the state of Oklahoma and are considered the state's rarest fish.

References

Sources

* Holley, C. T., Long J. M. 2018. Potential Longnose Darter Population in the Kiamichi River of Oklahoma. ResearchGate. (Accessed July 2, 2019) *NatureServe. 2019. NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life eb application Version 7.1. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available http://explorer.natureserve.org. (Accessed: June 23, 2019 ). *Warren et al. 2000. Diversity, Distribution, and Conservation Status of the Native Freshwater Fishes of the Southern United States. United States Forest Service, Southern Research Station. (Accessed July 2, 2019). Freshwater fish of the United States Percina Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Fish described in 1941 {{Percidae-stub