Selected Records of Stream Fishes from the Kansas River Basin in Kansas

Abstract

During 1992, we sampled fishes at 30 sites in the Kansas River and Smoky Hill River (as far west as Salina). Following this project (and the floods of 1993), we visited 30 sites in 1994 and 1995 along the Smoky Hill River (from Salina west through Wallace County), the Saline River, Solomon River, North Fork Solomon River, and South Fork Solomon River. Information from 77 additional samples was obtained by field crews from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) and Fort Hays State University (FHSU) in 1994 and 1995. Samples were obtained with seines or electrofishing equipment. Fish were identified and counted, either in the field (mostly larger specimens) or in the museum, to determine relative abundances of species at each site. Voucher specimens for these records are housed in the Collection of Fishes at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History (formerly the Museum of the High Plains; MHP) at FHSU, Hays, Kansas. Also included in this summary are records from recently sorted collections at the Sternberg Museum. Computerized records (FishGopher, Cornell University) of the fish collections at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum (KU) and University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ) were checked during our studies. This report summarizes records for nine species. Seventy-one additional county records for the maps compiled by Cross and Collins (1995) were listed in the newsletter of the Kansas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society (Eberle and others, 1995).