Geographic Variation in the North American Cyprinid Fish, Hybopsis gracilisCross, Frank B. (Frank Bernard)
Science
Geographic Variation in the North American Cyprinid Fish, Hybopsis gracilis
Cross, Frank B. (Frank Bernard)
Cyprinidae; Fishes -- North America
The flathead chub, _Hybopsis gracilis_ (Richardson), occurs in the
Plains Region of Canada and the United States, in four major drainage
systems: Mackenzie River, which discharges into the Arctic Ocean;
Saskatchewan River, which discharges into Hudson Bay via Nelson River;
and Missouri-Mississippi System and Rio Grande, both draining into the
Gulf of Mexico. Each of these systems is occupied in part only. In the
Mackenzie Basin, _H. gracilis_ has been reported as far north as Fort
Good Hope (Walters, 1955:347). Flathead chubs occur in the Saskatchewan
Basin from Alberta eastward to Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, but have not
been found in other streams that flow into Lake Winnipeg (Red River,
Brokenhead River and Whitemouth River) nor in Nelson River downstream
from Lake Winnipeg. In the Missouri Basin the species occurs more or
less continuously from the high plains adjacent to the Rocky Mountains
in Montana and Wyoming down the mainstream of the Missouri River to its
mouth, and down the mainstream of the Mississippi River as far as
Barfield, Arkansas, but not to the Gulf. The species probably attains
its greatest abundance in the Missouri Basin, but it is scarce or absent
in tributaries north and east of the Missouri mainstream, in the South
Platte Basin, and in the central part of the Platte River in Nebraska.
The flathead chub is unknown in the Mississippi Basin above the mouth of
the Missouri River, and in the Ohio River Basin above its mouth. In the
Arkansas River Basin, records are restricted to (1) the headwaters and
tributaries of the Arkansas River from eastern Colorado downstream as
far as Garden City, Kansas, (2) the Cimarron River at Kenton, Cimarron
County, Oklahoma, and (3) the South Canadian River and tributaries from
northeastern New Mexico eastward as far as Norman, McClain County,
Oklahoma, but rarely there. Thus, the range in the Arkansas Basin seems
to consist of three isolated segments. Likewise, isolated populations
exist in the Rio Grande System, where flathead chubs are confined to the
upper parts of the Rio Grande and Pecos basins, above the confluence of
the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers. Records resulting from introductions
have been reported for the Gila River by Koster (1957:62) and from the
Snake River, Wyoming, by Simon (1946:72).
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