The Occurrence of the Topeka Shiner, Notropis topeka (Gilbert), in Buck Creek, Jefferson County, Kansas

Abstract

The distribution of the Topeka shiner, Notropis topeka, in Kansas centers on the Flint Hills tributaries of the Kansas and Arkansas rivers. A recent collection of a single adult Topeka shiner outside this region in Buck Creek, Jefferson County, Kansas is documented. The Topeka shiner, Notropis topeka (Gilbert), is a threatened fish species in Kansas (Platt et al., 1974; Hlavachick, 1978) and has in most recent times been associated mainly with small streams draining Flint Hills' uplands in the Kansas and Arkansas river systems (Minckley and Cross, 1959; Metcalf, 1966; Cross, 1967; Cross and Collins, 1975). Considering the decimation of N. topeka populations in most Kansas streams, the possibility that other populations exist outside the Flint Hills region is noteworthy, and may be important in the continued survival of this species in Kansas. On 10 March 1980 a single adult Notropis topeka (KU 18601) was obtained by the authors and Scott W. Campbell using a 15 x 4 foot nylon mesh seine from Buck Creek in Jefferson County, Kansas. This capture of N. topeka is the first record of this species in Jefferson County, and the first such capture in the Kansas River system north of the Kansas River and east of the Blue River drainage. Buck Creek is 11-12 km in length and is a direct tributary of the Kansas River which flows through the Osage Cuesta physiographic region of northeastern Kansas (Metcalf, 1966). The site of capture (Sec. 27, T.11S, R.19E) was approximately 2.5 km upstream from the confluence of Buck Creek with the Kansas River, and consisted of a straight portion of the channel with slow current over a clay and gravel substrate with stream depths from 0.5 to 1.0 m. Other species of fishes collected at this locality included: Cyprinus carpio, Semotilus atromaculatus, Phenacobius mirabilis, Notropis umbratilis, N. lutrensis, N. stramineus, Pimephales notatus, Campostoma anomalum, This content downloaded from 157.55.39.102 on Fri, 23 Dec 2016 04:52:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 58 TRANSACTIONS OF THE KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Catostomus commersoni, Ictalurus melas, Noturus exilis, Lepomis cyanellus, and Etheostoma spectabile. Further collections are necessary in order to ascertain whether the specimen was a stray that made its way into Buck Creek from one of the Flint Hills streams via the Kansas River, or a member of a resident population within the stream. In our opinion, the probability of this individual being a stray from a Flint Hills stream is small. N. exilis is another fish species that is considered very uncommon north of the Kansas River and is a typical resident of streams in the Kansas River system portion of the Flint Hills region (Metcalf, 1966; Cross, 1967). One specimen (KU 18725) was taken on 10 March 1980 at the same locality as the Notropis topeka was captured (Sec. 27, T.1 IS, R.19E) and numerous individuals (KU 18676) were taken on 20 September 1980 (Sec. 3, T. 11S, R.19E).