PROCEEDINGS OF THE OKLAHOMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Volume 63—1983

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THREE ADDITIONAL RECORDS FOR FISHES RARE IN OKLAHOMA

Jimmie Pigg

Moore High School, Moore, Oklahoma 73160
and Environmental Services, Oklahoma State Department of Health, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73152

The yellow bass, Morone mississippiensis (Jordan and Eigenmann), has been collected only three times in Oklahoma (1). All of the reported records were from the Little River Drainage in McCurtain County.

On July 7, 1980, during a survey of toxic materials in Lake Hugo fishes by the State Department of Health (OSDH), four specimens were collected by the author, from the Wilson Point section of the lake (Section 24 T-6-S, R-18-E) using a 1-inch mesh, 4´ × 300´ gill net set overnight. On July 9, 1982, 40 additional specimens were captured from the upper section of the lake, east of Messer (Section 27, T-5-N, R-2-E). The length and weight range for these 44 specimens was 20.0 - 40.0 cm and 120.0 - 236.0 g.

During the 1980 November survey of Lake Hugo by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC), P. Mauck collected 99 yellow bass from gill net settings throughout the lake. The total weight for this group was 6.3 kg with a mean weight of 63.5 g. Additional yellow bass were collected during the 1982 fall survey by ODWC by J. Harper. A total of 161 specimens made up 21.8 percent of all fish collected by gill netting. The white crappie, Pomoxis annularis, was the only species collected in larger numbers (34.7 percent). The ranges in weight and length of the fish collected by Harper were 38.0 - 204.0 g and 14.5 - 24.2 cm.

There now appears to be a well-established reproducing population of the yellow bass in Lake Hugo. In an earlier survey of the Kiamichi River before the impoundment of Lake Hugo, this species was not collected (2). The addition of this species to the ichthyofauna of the Kiamichi River brings the total number of reported species to 101 for the drainage.

On May 21, 1981, two specimens of the Red River pupfish, Cyprinodon rubrofluviatilis (Fowler), were collected by the author from a backwater channel of the South Canadian River south of Wanette (Section 12, T-5-N, R-2-E) in Pottawatomie County by the Biotrend Survey Team from OSDH. These specimens were catalogued as number 826 into OSDH fish collection in Oklahoma City. This is the first known record of this species from the Arkansas River drainage in Oklahoma. The first known collection of this species in the Arkansas River drainage was by F. B. Cross (personal communication) on April 22, 1972 from a small, clear, braided channel of the Canadian River at Texas Highway 70 in Robert County, Texas. The single specimen was catalogued into the Kansas University Museum of Natural History at KU 14707.

A shovelnose sturgeon, Scaphirhynchus platorynchus (Rafinesque), was collected by the author from the Red River south of Harris, Oklahoma, in McCurtain County (Section 16, T-10-S, R-25-E). The specimen was captured with a 2-inch mesh, 4´ × 100´ gill net placed across a back channel of the Red River during a time when the river was at flood stage. This specimen was 47.3 cm long and weighed 270.0 g. It will be catalogued into the OSDH fish collection in Oklahoma City.

REFERENCES

1.   J. PIGG, M. BARNETT, and K. SCOTT, Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci. 59: 123 (1979).

2.   J. PIGG and L. G. HILL, Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci. 54: 121-130 (1974).