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BRIEF NOTE DISCOVERY OF THE RIVER REDHORSE, M0X0ST0MA CARINATUM, IN THE GRAND RIVER, AN OHIO TRIBUTARY OF LAKE ERIE1

ANDREW M. WHITE, Department of Biology, John Carroll University, Cleveland, OH MILTON B. TRAUTMAN, Department of Zoology, The Ohio State University, Columbus OH

OHIO J. SCI. 81(1): 45, 1981

The River Redhorse, Moxostoma cari- Goslin (1943) found pharyngeal bones natum, currently has a disjunct range. of this sucker in middens at a prehistoric It is present in portions of the Canadian Indian village near the present city of St. Lawrence River system, including Painesville, Ohio, which is adjacent to Lacs St. Pierre and St. Louis and some the Grand River (Trautman 1957). northern tributaries (Scott and Crossman The bones of other suckers and other fish 1973). In the United States, the species species currently part of the Grand River was or is present in Michigan in the fauna also were present; however, Indians Muskegon River, a tributary of Lake commonly utilized fishes as food and oc- Michigan, and in the Detroit River of casionally carried smoked, sun-dried, or Lake Erie. An 1893 specimen from the fire-dried portions of fishes on journeys. Tiffin River, a tributary of the Maumee It is conceivable that the bones examined River, is in the Lake Erie drainage of in the middens were from fishes captured Ohio (Jenkins 1970). In the Mississippi in the tributaries of the Ohio River, less drainage, it is or was present from than 50 miles to the south, and trans- Minnesota south to Arkansas, including ported to these localities where they were portions of the Missouri and Ohio rivers, discovered by Goslin. and in the Gulf drainage from the Pearl In 1974 we discovered a River Red- River eastward to and including the horse specimen without locality data in Escambia (Phillips and Underhill 1967). the classroom collections of John Carroll The species has become endangered or University. Although it was suspected has been extirpated from many portions that the specimen had been collected in of this original range. northeastern Ohio, collections had also It may be assumed that in post-Wis- been made in southern Ohio, where the consin times the River Redhorse invaded species is now known to occur. Later the Great Lakes drainage from the Mis- developments lend credence to the pos- sissippi drainage, north-eastward through sibility of its having been collected in the such glacial outlets as Lake Maumee. Grand River drainage. On one or more occasions, this lake was During the summer of 1976 the Grand connected to the Wabash River and/or River was examined at more than a dozen the Chicago outlet that connected the locations between the Lake-Ashtabula Illinois River with Lake Michigan County line eastward through Lake (Greene 1935). By invading Lake Erie County to Painesville. Much of this through the Lake Maumee outlet (Traut- section appeared to contain ecological man 1957), the species could have con- conditions such as those now present in tinued eastward through that lake, the streams of the Ohio River drainage Niagara outlet, Lake Ontario and into where the species presently occurs. The the St. Lawrence drainage. There is no stream ranged from 50 ft to 100 ft in evidence of an Atlantic Coast refugium width, and pools contained large areas of from a north-westward invasion. silt-free substrates, including rocks, cob- bles and gravels. Despite thorough col- Manuscript rceeived 30 August 1979 (#79-46). lecting with seines and experimental gill- 45 46 A. M. WHITE AND M. B. TRAUTMAN Vol. nets, no River Redhorse was taken during considerable support to the concept of an the year, although many of the associates invasion into the St. Lawrence through of the River Redhorse were captured, Lake Erie. Further, since the only other such as Silver Lamprey, Ichthyomyzon Ohio record of this species in the Lake unicuspis; Muskellunge, Esox masquin- Erie drainage was a single specimen from ongy ohioensis; Silver, Moxostoma ani- the Tiffin River in 1893, it is probable surum; Black, M. duquesnei; Golden, M. that the Grand River population repre- erythrurum and Shorthead, M. macro- sents the only remaining River Red- lepidotum, redhorses; and Sand Darter, horses in Ohio's Lake Erie tributaries. Ammocrypta pellucida. The presence of this population also sug- gests that there may be other relict popu- We placed a Pennsylvania-style fish lations in the tributaries of Lakes Erie trap (Marinovich Trawl Co., Biloxi, MS) and Ontario, especially in Pennsylvania with a 4x6x16 ft car and 100 ft leads in the and New York. Grand River downstream of Painesville on 29 June 1977 at a location where the Acknowledgments. The authors would like to substrates were clean cobble at a depth of express their appreciation to John Carroll Uni- versity and to the Northeast Ohio Areawide 4 to 7 ft. Three experimental gilmets Coordinating Agency through which partial (125 ft each) were positioned so that they funding for the completion of this study was restricted the downstream movement of obtained. fishes past the trap. When lifted on the morning of 30 June, the trap contained LITERATURE CITED Goslin, Robert M. 1943 Animal remains. many species of fishes, including 2 River The Fairport Harbor Village. Ohio State Redhorses, the largest an adult male with Archaeol. Hist. Quart. 52: 45-51. remnants of breeding tubercles, 450 mm Greene, C. Willard 1935 The distribution of SL (OSUMZ 35500), and the other a Wisconsin fishes. State Wise. Conserv. Comm., Madison. 235 pp, 96 maps. young male, 261 mm SL (JCU 1807). Jenkins, Robert E. 1970 Systematic Studies of the Catostomatid Fish Tribe Moxosto- During the remainder of 1977, the matini. Unpub. PhD Thesis, Cornell Uni- Grand River was sampled upstream of versity, Ithaca. 799 pp. the Painesville area utilizing similar tech- Phillips, G. L. and J. C. Underhill 1967 Re- niques. We captured 3 additional speci- vised distribution records of some Minnesota fishes, with the addition of two species to the mens of River Redhorse from 2 localities, faunal list. J. Minn. Acad. Sci. 34: 177-80. suggesting that this species may occur Scott, W. B. and E. S. Crossman 1973 Fresh- throughout the Lake County portion of water fishes of Canada. Fish. Res. Bd. the drainage. Canada Bull. 184, 966 pp. Trautman, Milton B. 1957 The fishes of Ohio. The collection of this species in the Ohio State University Press, Columbus. Grand River drainage of Lake Erie lends 683 pp.