DISTRIBUTION OF THE THREATENED LEOPARD DARTER, PERCINA-PANTHERINA (OSTEICHTHYES, PERCIDAE)

We evaluated the occurrence of the threatened leopard darter (Percina pantherina) in the Little River drainage in Oklahoma and Arkansas to c omprehensively document the distribution of the species. Direct observ ation while snorkeling was used to determine presence. Leopard darters were absent from the Saline and mainstem Rolling Fork rivers. The spe cies was widely distributed in the upper Mountain Fork and upper Littl e River drainages; populations occurred in the mainstems and several t ributaries of both of these streams. Small populations were found in t he Cossatot River and the previously unsurveyed Robinson Fork of the R olling Fork. Both of these populations were isolated and restricted to short stream reaches, and they lacked tributary refugia, thereby rend ering them vulnerable to catastrophic extirpation.