A study of infraspecific variation was based on more than 4000 specimens from approximately 540 series, taken throughout the range of Etheostoma blennioides. On the basis of scale and fin-ray counts, degree of opercle and belly squamation, size of upper lip tip, and presence of a distinct frenum, four subspecies are recognized: E. b. blennioides Rafinesque, E. b. newmanii (Agassiz), E. b. gutselli (Hildebrand), and E. b. pholidotum, new subspecies. E. b. newmanii has the highest scale counts, more dorsal rays, usually a fully scaled belly, and often a well-developed lip tip. The subspecies is found throughout the Tennessee River System (except in areas occupied by gutselli), the Cumberland River System, and west of the Mississippi River in the St. Francis, White, Arkansas, and Ouachita River systems. The population in the Tennessee River differs, on a racial level, from the populations of the Cumberland, St. Francis, Black, and upper White rivers. Another race of newmanii occurs in the Arkansas, Ouachita, Saline, and Little Red rivers. E. b. gutselli usually lacks opercle scales, has no upper lip tip, has low scale counts, and usually has a naked belly anteriorly. It intergrades with newmanii in the Hiawassee River System, but is allopatric with it in the Little Tennessee and Pigeon rivers. At present, gutselli is restricted to the headwaters of the Little Tennessee River and some tributaries of the