CHAPTER 7 Subterranean Fishes of North America: Amblyopsidae Matthew L. Niemiller1 and Thomas L. Poulson2 1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996, USA E-mail:
[email protected] 2Emeritus Professor, University of Illinois-Chicago E-mail:
[email protected] INTRODUCTION The Amblyopsid cavefi shes, family Amblyopsidae, have been viewed as a model system for studying the ecological and evolutionary processes of cave adaptation because the four cave-restricted species in the family represent a range of troglomorphy that refl ect variable durations of isolation in caves (Poulson 1963, Poulson and White 1969). This group has both intrigued and excited biologists since the discovery and description of Amblyopsis spelaea, the fi rst troglobitic fi sh ever described, in the early 1840s. Other than the Mexican cavefi sh (Astyanax fasciatus), cave Amblyopsids are the most comprehensively studied troglobitic fi shes (Poulson, this volume). The Amblyopsidae (Fig. 1) includes species with some unique features for all cavefi sh. Typhlichthys subterraneus is the most widely distributed of any cavefi sh species. Its distribution spans more than 5° of latitude and 1 million km2 (Proudlove 2006). Amblyopsis spelaea is the only cavefi sh known to incubate eggs in its gill chamber. In fact, this species is the only one of the approximately 1100 species in North America with this behavior. The Amblyopsidae is the most specious family of subterranean fi shes in the United States containing four of the eight species recognized. Two other © 2010 by Science Publishers 170 Biology of Subterranean Fishes Fig. 1 Members of the Amblyopsidae. The family includes (A) the surface- dwelling swampfi sh (Chologaster cornuta), (B) the troglophile spring cavefi sh (Forbesichthys agassizii), and four troglobites: (C) the southern cavefi sh (Typhlichthys subterraneus), (D) the northern cavefi sh (Amblyopsis spelaea), (E) the Ozark cavefi sh (A.