The Rio Grande darter (Etheostoma grahami) is a small species of ray-finned fish, a darter from the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the family Percidae which includes the perches, ruffs and pike-perches. It is endemic to the lower Rio Grande drainage of the United States and Mexico. It inhabits riffles over substrates of gravel or rubble. This species can reach a length of 6 cm (2.4 in), though most only reach about 3 cm (1.2 in).[2] The Rio Grande darter was first formally described as Oligocephalus grahami in 1859 by the French zoologist Charles Frédéric Girard (1822-1895) with the type locality given as the Devils River in Texas.[3] The specific name honors the American soldier and topographer James Duncan Graham (1795-1865), who led the expedition on which the type was collected by John H. Clark.[4]

Rio Grande darter
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Percidae
Genus: Etheostoma
Species:
E. grahami
Binomial name
Etheostoma grahami
(Girard, 1859)
Synonyms[2]
  • Oligocephalus grahami Girard, 1859

References edit

  1. ^ NatureServe (2019). "Etheostoma grahami". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019: e.T8115A129976217. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-2.RLTS.T8115A129976217.en. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2019). "Etheostoma grahami" in FishBase. December 2019 version.
  3. ^ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Oligocephalus grahami". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  4. ^ Girard, C. F. (1859). "Ichthyological notices". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 11: 100–104.