BULLETIN FLORIDA STATE MUSEUM


 The following color description by Reeve M. Bailey 'is based on
live specimens (UMMZ 157882) collected 23 August 1939 from a
tributary of the Chattahoochee River 2.5 miles southwest of Chipley,
Harris County, Georgia: side silvery, tinged with pinkish-orange on
lower parts in large adults; upper parts dark olivaceous; lower fins
white; dorsal fin white, with a band in middle, the band pink in
young, reddish-orange in small adults, becoming entirely black in
large adults; narrow reddish edge at base of caudal fin in smaller
breeding males; tail bright red in large adult, with a whitish base and
distal margin; lowermost ray of caudal fin whitish; reddish-orange bar
extending upward and downward from base of pectoral, this bar
black in breeding males; cheek pale silvery blue.
 VARIATION. Nuptial tubercles are present in both males and fe-
males, but they are better developed in the males. Though no de-
tailed comparison of breeding colors has been made between the
sexes, one may assume that the male colors are more pronounced, as
in other species of Luxilus.
 Notropis zonistius apparently is the only species of Luxilus with
a gradient in anal ray count (table 13). Specimens from the southern
part of the range have a modal count of 10, as compared to 9 in
specimens from farther north. This situation is comparable to that
found in Notropis cummingsae, in which individuals from upland
areas usually have 9 anal rays and those from lowland areas 10 or 11
(Hubbs and Raney, 1951: 18), and in Notemigonus crysoleucas, in
which specimens from farther south have a greater modal number of
anal rays than those farther north (Schultz, 1927).
 Martin (1949: 65) has shown that "a fast growing group of indi-
viduals may have relatively large body parts, such as head and fins."
Thus in individuals developing in a warm environment, the anal fin
grows more rapidly into a longer fin with more fin rays than in indi-
viduals from colder waters. As the variation in anal-ray counts in
N. zonistius probably has an environmental rather than a genetic
basis, the populations differing in this character have not been ac-
corded subspecific status.
 DISTRIBUTION. Notropis zonistius is restricted to small tributaries
of the Chattahoochee River system in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida
and the upper Savannah River system in Georgia. The single record
from the Savannah system (CU 25170) is probably the result of stream
capture, although the species may have been introduced there.
 LIFE HISTORY AND ECOLOGY. Nothing has appeared in the litera-
ture regarding the life history of N. zonistius. In view of its close


Vol. 8