THE FISHES OF WEST-VIRGINIA

This document is the most comprehensive work on the fishes of West Vir ginia to date and is the culmination of more than twenty years of rese arch. The body of the text contains descriptions of the major river dr ainages in West: Virginia, a brief discussion of the zoogeography of t he fishes within the state, a table of fish distributions by drainage, a guide to the anatomical features used in fish identification, dicho tomous keys to the families and species of West Virginia fishes, physi cal descriptions of all fish species known or expected to occur in the state, and a glossary to supplement the species descriptions. West Vi rginia is drained by approximately 9,000 streams and rivers with a com bined length of more than 45,000 km. Additionally, there are some 17,8 00 impoundments harboring fishes. The state is drained by seven major rivers: the Ohio, Big Sandy/Tug Fork, Kanawha, Little Kanawha, Mononga hela, Potomac and James. The ancient Teays system, which headed agains t the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, is considered to be the major route of dispersal of fishes originating in the Mississippi Rive r basin. Of all the rivers in West Virginia today, the Ohio River and its tributaries harbor the most species. The Atlantic Slope fauna of W est Virginia is derived from the Potomac River, which broke through th e Blue Ridge and captured parr of the old Shenandoah River, and from t he James River, which drains a small portion of the state. Information presented in the text was gathered by three different means. First, a ll major fish museums in the eastern United States were contacted and records of specimens collected in West Virginia were requested. Museum s with significant. holdings of West Virginia fishes were visited and their materials examined. Next, new fish surveys were conducted at app roximately 1,000 sites throughout the state. Finally, an extensive sea rch of the ichthyological literature was conducted to obtain additiona l information on species' distributions and life histories. Based on t hese efforts, it was concluded that a total of 176 species of fish dis tributed among 22 families are known or expected to occur in West Virg inia. A description is provided for each species, accompanied by a lin e drawing, characters needed to distinguish it from similar species, a map of its statewide distribution, and a discussion of its habitat, d iet, and reproduction. The species are arranged in phylogenetic order. Brief descriptions of each family and genus are included.