The Niangua Darter
Like most darters, the Niangua darter is slender, having a long, thin body. However, it is rather large for a darter, averaging three to four inches from head to tail. The body is yellowish-olive and has eight dark bars across the back. Healthy specimens display orange spots scattered over their upper sides in addition. Also, a series of “U-shaped greenish blotches” alternate along its side with thin, narrow, orange markings (Missouri Department of Conservation).
The Niangua darter can be distinguished from other darters by the presence of two small, black spots at the base of its tail fin. Without these spots, the Niangua darter is nearly identical to many other darters. This is because the coloration displayed by the Niangua darter is quite comparable to that of other darters. However, these identifying spots are not apparent in breeding males. This can be attributed to the spawning behavior that they exhibit, clearing possible spawning areas with its tail. During this process, the scales along the bottom side of the tale, including the dots, simply wear off. They do, however, grow back and reappear at the end of the breeding season.
The Niangua darter’s closest known relative is the arrow darter, which can be found in eastern Kentucky and northern Tennessee. Not surprisingly, it lacks the distinctive black tail spots of the Niangua (Missouri Department of Conservation). The two species never cross paths during their lifetimes, and therefore there is no confusion in identifying between the two very similar-looking species.
Darters are an important part of any stream ecosystem. They generally play the crucial role of secondary consumers, comprising most of their diet of soft-bodied animal...
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11. Pomme de Terre River Watershed Inventory and Assessment. 1999. (On-line)
http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/fish/watershed/pomme/contents/330cotxt.htm
12. Missouri Fish and Wildlife Information System: DARTER, NIANGUA. 08/19/98
(On-line) http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/nathis/mofwis/detail/0100064.HTM
13. Species Summary for Etheostoma nianguae: Niangua darter. Page, L.M. and B.M. Burr,1991. (On-line) http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?ID=3444
14. All Outdoors - 3. Conservation Incentives Make Stream Management Attractive. 12/15/95 (On-line) http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/news/out/1995/out12155.html
15. Magers, Vince. Ichthyology’s Golden Age. Missouri Conversationist, Volume 60, Number 9, Sept 1999. http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/conmag/1999/09/6.html
3 Apr. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. http://eol.org/pages/323582/details>. Evans, Arthur V., Rosser W. Garrison, Neil Schlager, and Michael Hutchins. Grzimeks' Animal Life Encyclopedia.
United States Department of the interior Fish And Wildlife Service, . North American Fauna. 2012.
The Longnose Gar and Mudpuppy are both native species that can be found in Ohio. The Gar gets its name from the long nose that is very similar looking to a beak of a bird. The Gar in the lab is brownish grey with black spots, but in the wild they do have a range of colors. Their size is often a wide range as well. Some Longnose Gars can grow to be up to 6ft, but it is common for them to be between 3 and 4 feet long (Groves ). The gar in this lab is about a foot long, so smaller than those in the wild. The other animal in the tank is the mudpuppy. Mudpuppies are common all over the northeast United States. They are also called the waterdog which is because they are the only salamander that makes noise (National geographic: Mudpuppy). They mainly stay at the bottom of the lakes and body of water where they feed. Both the mudpuppy and the Longnose gar’s conservation status are common.
The Species of the World. A people's history of the United States. (2003 ed.) In: The Journal of Science.
The Atlantic Puffin’s ecosystem contains a combination of both terrestrial, aerial, and aquatic plants and animals. For the cliff-...
The "White-Tailed Deer." Ccontario.org. Cornell University, 2001. http://www.cnu.edu/item/cnu Web. The Web.
The body of the great hammerhead is the biggest of the nine species of hammerhead sharks and is coloured grey-brown to olive green on top and off-white below. They have heavily serrated triangular teeth. The length of the great hammerhead can range from four to six meters and weigh between 230 to 450 kg.
...lifornia, they are found all over the world as long as there is an abundance of its prey.
United States. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2010. Web. .
Nymphs live in water throughout their entire developmental stage, which can take anywhere from three weeks to more than eight years, depending on the species of the nymph and it’s location and habitat. They undergo eight to seventeen molts (Corbet, 1999), although the amount of molts undergone depends on the species. When a nymph’s developmental stage is complete, it climbs out of it’s previous home in the water, a final molt is undergone, and an adult damselfly appears (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010).
Works Cited Bates, D. (1957, December 17). Letter from Roy Wilkins. Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America. Beals, M. P. (1994). The Species of the World.
tail. They have gray or rosy brown backs with lighter gray or brown hind legs and have
Just as in any other sport, understanding gives rise to advantage and success. As serious fishermen, we had dedicated much thought to understanding the fish, hypothesizing their behavior. One understanding we had already gained through previous experiences was that fish readily eat the prey that is normally available. This, we concluded, was a sort of defense against fishermen and their foreign lures and was acquired through the fishes’ own previous experience of eating a lure. In applying this understanding to our fishing, we performed a routine food chain analysis to find out what our lures needed to imitate. The results were that the part of the food chain just beneath our quarry consisted mostly of small fish such as anchovies and young yellowtail, smaller than those shad and bluegill normally eaten in freshwater ponds. To compensate for this difference we would have to use lures smaller than those we were used to using. Luckily we had some.
Stiling, Peter. Ecology: Theories and Applications. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996.