Relict darter

Appearance

It grows up to about 7.2 centimetres (2.8 in) in length and is characterized by "lollipop-like" white knobs on the second dorsal fin of the male that develops during the breeding season.

Range and habitat

It is endemic to Kentucky, where it occurs only in the drainage of the Bayou de Chien. The species is only found in a 35-kilometre (22 mi) stretch of the Bayou de Chien, a tributary of the Mississippi River in Kentucky. It shelters in areas where the riverbank is undercut and water flows beneath a mat of roots.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet

The relict darter's diet is mainly insects. Only one spawning area has been observed.

This species is limited to one small river system that has been altered and no longer has much habitat or appropriate spawning areas.

In crisis

The USFWS proposed reclassification of the relict darter to "threatened" in March 2022, having previously listed it endangered effective January 1994. It cited the existence of two locations, Bayou de Chien and Jackson Creek, both part of the same population, where reproduction and recruitment were occurring based on survey data. Localized improvements to stream habitat have occurred due to conservation efforts, but threats remain.

Relict darter is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Relict darter, Wikidata item Q2043894. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.