The American Cyprinid Fishes of the Subgenus Luxilus (Genus Notropis)

Abstract

The cyprinid fishes of the subgenus Luxilus (genus Notropis) comprise three well-defined species groups of eight species and one subspecies. They occupy clear, small to medium-sized streams over most of temperate North America east of the Rockies, being absent only from areas southwest of the Red River drainage in Texas, the upper Missouri basin, the southern Piedmont plain, and peninsular Florida. The present study defines the subgenus, reviews its nomenclatural history, explains its patterns of variation, describes the various forms and their distributions, and discusses their probable zoogeographic and phylogenetic histories.