The Conasauga logperch (''Percina jenkinsi'') is a species of freshwater

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

, a darter from the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Etheostomatinae Etheostomatinae 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 ...

, part of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

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 nearly 250 ...

, which also contains the

perch Perch is a common name for freshwater fish from the genus ''Perca'', which belongs to the family Percidae of the large order Perciformes. The name comes from , meaning the type species of this genus, the European perch (''P. fluviatilis'') ...

es, ruffes and pikeperches. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is one of 184 species of darters in North America.Helfman, G.S., Collette, B.B., Facey, D.E., & Bowen, B.W. (2009). The diversity of fishes. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. It has been listed as endangered throughout its range with critical habitat under the U.S.

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting and conserving imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of e ...

since August 5, 1985.Thompson B.A., J.D. Williams, and D.A. Etnier. 1986. Recovery plan for Conasauga logperch ''(Percina jenkinsi)'' and Amber darter ''(Percins antesella)''. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Atlanta, Georgia. 34 pp.

Anatomy and appearance

This is a slender fish with a maximum length of .Starnes, W.C, & Etnier, D.A. (1993). ''The fishes of Tennessee''. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press. They are characterized by the presence of a conical, "pig-like" snout and "tiger-stripe" pattern of numerous dark, vertical bars on a yellowish background. The curious snout development is an apparent adaptation to stone-flipping behavior, in which the snout is used to flip over rocks during feeding. Unlike many other darter species, logperches show little sexual dimorphism in coloration.Near T.J. and M.F. Benard. 2004. Rapid allopatric speciation in logperch darters (Percidae: ''Percina).'' Evolution 58(12): 2798–2808.

Geographic distribution

The Conasauga logperch is currently known only from an 11-mile reach of the

Conasauga River The Conasauga River is a river that runs through southeast Tennessee and northwest Georgia. The Conasauga River is longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 27, 2011 an ...

, a Coosa River tributary in northern Georgia and south-central Tennessee. Thompson (1985) hypothesized ''jenkinsi'' to be derived from ''Percina caprodes'', which entered the Conasauga system from the adjacent Hiwassee system of the Tennessee drainage.Williams J.D., D.A. Neely, S.J. Walsh, and N.M. Burkhead. 2007. Three new percid fishes (Percidae: ''Percina'') from the Mobile basin drainage of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. Zootaxa 15490:/ 1–28. Specifically, it exists in the Conasauga River from the confluence of Half-way Branch with the Conasauga River in Polk County, Tennessee, downstream approximately 11 miles through

Bradley County, Tennessee Bradley County is a County (United States), county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 108,620, making it the thirteenth most populous county i ...

, to the Georgia State Highway 2 bridge in Murray County, Georgia.Freeman B.J. and M.C. Freeman. 1994. Habitat use by an endangered riverine fish and implications for species protection. ''Ecology of Freshwater Fish'' 3: 49–58.

Ecology

Logperch feed on a variety of invertebrates. This species feeds on aquatic invertebrates found under stones. It is known to flip over substrate and prey on disturbed invertebrates. The procedure of flipping substrate makes available to them a wide range of organisms including larvae of

midge A midge is any small fly, including species in several family (biology), families of non-mosquito nematoceran Diptera. Midges are found (seasonally or otherwise) on practically every land area outside permanently arid deserts and the frigid ...

mayflies Mayflies (also known as shadflies or fishflies in Canada and the upper Midwestern United States, as Canadian soldiers in the American Great Lakes region, and as up-winged flies in the United Kingdom) are aquatic insects belonging to the order ...

caddisflies The caddisflies (order Trichoptera) are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. There are approximately 14,500 described species, most of which can be divided into the suborders Integripalpia and Annulipalpia on the basis ...

riffle beetle Elmidae, commonly known as riffle beetles, is a family of beetles in the superfamily Byrrhoidea described by John Curtis in 1830. Both adults and larvae are usually aquatic, living under rocks in fast-flowing shallow areas of streams, such as r ...

stoneflies Plecoptera is an order of insects commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to be one of the most ...

limpets Limpets are a group of aquatic snails with a conical shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot. This general category of conical shell is known as "patelliform" (dish-shaped). Existing within the class Gastropoda, limpets are a po ...

, and fish eggs. Young feed on microcrustaceans. It is most likely that introduced

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

(''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') and

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...

(''Salmo trutta'') are the main predators for this species. Sexual maturity is reached after one year and spawning occurs in spring, in fast riffles over gravel substrate. The fish has a maximum life span of at least four years. Logperch are in a clade of darters that exhibit little ecological variation among species. Males are nonterritorial and several may follow a single female until breeding takes place. The parents bury the fertilized eggs in the substrate. Exposed eggs are usually eaten by other males. Eggs are adhesive and demersal (heavier than water) thus allowing them to remain in the substrate. Hatching requires 200 hours. Clutch size is not documented and varies greatly in the genus ''Percina''; fecundity of ''

Percina caprodes The common logperch (''Percina caprodes''), sometimes simply known as the logperch, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish, a darter from the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the family Percidae, which also contains the perches, ruffes and ...

'' females is high, ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 ova per year, while ''

Percina evides The gilt darter (''Percina evides'') is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish, a darter from the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the family Percidae, which also contains the perches, ruffes and pikeperches. It can be found in a number of st ...

'' females have been observed with a fecundity of only about 130 to 400 ova per year.

Etymology

The Conasauga logperch was first formally described in 1985 by the American

ichthyologist 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, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

Dr. Bruce A. Thompson (1946–2007) and its

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honors Thompson's fellow ichthyologist Robert E. Jenkins of

Roanoke College Roanoke College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Salem, Virginia. It has approximately 2,000 students who represent approximately 40 states and 30 countries. The college offers ...

Current management

''Percina jenkinsi'' has been federally listed as endangered throughout its range with critical habitat on August 5, 1986.Chadwick D.H. 2010. Silent streams: freshwater animals are vanishing faster than those on land or at sea, but captive-breeding programs hold out hope. National Geographic 16: 116. A recovery plan was completed on June 20, 1986. At their Knoxville nonprofit, Conservation Fisheries, INC. (CFI) J.R. Shutes and Pat Rakes are trying to keep this rare species alive. The Conasauga River might hold a limited 200 individuals of this species and CFI holds three, the only ones in captivity. The goal is to have seed stock ready to restore the fish to the river, if and when society restores that river to its clean, free-flowing state. The Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, and other private facilities, and state and federal wildlife agencies have efforts under way as well. The Southeastern Fishes Council put together a list they call the Desperate Dozen, "the twelve fish most likely to become extinct soon," and this list includes ''Percina jenkinsi.'' Current management includes preserving the Conasauga river populations and presently used habitat, utilize existing legislation of the Federal

for water quality regulations, stream alteration regulations, etc., conduct life history research on the species to include reproduction, food habits, age and growth, and mortality factors, determine the number of individuals required to maintain a viable population, and searching for additional populations and habitats suitable for reintroduction efforts. The Forest Service is playing a lead role in conservation efforts in the upper watershed. The Conasauga River Alliance—a partnership of local citizens, businesses, conservation groups, and government agencies—is coordinating conservation activities in the middle section of the watershed. Both are active and assist each other throughout these parts of the watershed.Ivey, G, and K. Evans. 2000. Conasauga river alliance business plan; Conasauga River Watershed Ecosystem Project. http://www.fs.fed.us/largewatershedprojects/businessplans/. Other partnerships include U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NC State University, Regional Solid Waste Management Authority, local industries and utility companies, Georgia DNR, private and public landowners, volunteers, and local city and county governments.Anonymous. 2005. The Nature Conservancy in Georgia: Conasauga River. https://web.archive.org/web/20081203050622/http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/georgia/files/conasauga_river_fact_sheet.pdf

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3232850 Conasauga logperch Natural history of Georgia (U.S. state) Freshwater fish of the United States Taxa named by Bruce A. Thompson Conasauga logperch Taxonomy articles created by Polbot ESA endangered species