A New Record of the Quillback Carpsucker Carpiodes cyprinus (LeSeuer) from the Kansas River Basin

Abstract

The quillback carpsucker has been reported from both the Kansas and Arkansas River drainages. The majority of the specimens taken have been from the Arkansas River drainage, specifically the Ninnescah River (Cross, 1967). The most northern record reported from Kansas is Lovewell Reservoir, located in Jewell County, Kansas (Cross, 1967) while one specimen was taken from the Big Blue River (Minckley, 1959). The fish reported in this note were taken from the stilling basin of Milford Reservoir near Junction City and from a sand pit directly south of the dam. This sand pit has since been drained and the area it occupied has been developed into a recreational site. The reservoir itself impounds the Republican River and is in Geary County Kansas. The fish were collected from 31 May through 4 June 1968 through the cooperation of Mr. Lanny Jones and Mr. Bill Cole of the Kansas Forestry Fish and Game Commission during the draining of that basin by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. A total of 22 specimens of C. cyprinus were collected ranging in size from 296 mm to 180 mm in standard length (mean S.L.; 208 mm). Several males were tuberculate and all fish were in good condition. This small number of specimens does not reflect the number present in the stilling basin as wery little time was spent in actual collecting . It appears that C. cyprinus is more common than expected in Kansas River Basin although still not a major part of the fish fauna. All specimens have been placed in the ichthyological collection at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.