Percina sciera
| Dusky darter | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Family: | Percidae |
| Genus: | Percina |
| Species: | P. sciera |
| Binomial name | |
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Percina sciera (Swain, 1883) |
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The dusky darter (Percina sciera) is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus Percina, found, but not confined to, both large and small rivers, and shallow creeks (1-3rd order), in the eastern, southern, and southeastern United States, particularly the Mississippi River drainage system.
Percina are benthic and benthic-associated fishes. Percina sciera belongs to the family Percidae, which along with Etheostomatinae comprise approximately 20-percent of the recognized diversity in North American freshwater fish. Land development may threaten P. sciera habitat.Percina prefer low water velocity in riffle/pool transition areas primarily on top of woody debris in a sandy/boulder substrate.
Percina sciera is considered both a wide-ranging and geographically restricted species that inhabits a variety of freshwater habitats including creeks, streams, rivers as well as lakes and reservoirs in the Mississippi River drainage.P. sciera is found in the eastern United States in areas ranging from the Tennessee Tombigbee waterway, to the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau section of Southern Ohio, to the second and fourth order streams within the Pine Hills of the Mississippi coastal plain.P. sciera has also been studied and monitored in lower Tallahala Creek near its confluence with the Leaf River, which is within the Pascagoula River drainage.Sympatric darter species, including P. sciera, segregate along several resource axes in the Appalachians such as the Elk River, West Virginia, one of several “islands” of fish diversity in the Eastern Highlands of the Mississippi River drainage system.
Percina sciera microhabitats range from shallow riffles to deep runs and slow pools, with a wide variety of substrates from large boulders to mixtures of sand and gravel. Interspecies interaction, such as with the black-banded darter, Percina nigrofasciata, occurs most often in either the same or adjacent microhabitats; microhabitat displacement is a common outcome of competition. In the Elk River, West Virginia, P. sciera inhabit microhabitats with a low water velocity in the riffle/pool transition areas (mean flow rate of 5.0 cubic centimeters per second at a mean depth of 45.4 cm.) primarily on top of small woody debris and sand/boulder substrates, a water velocity typically slower than for Etheostoma.
Temperature and pH requirements are moderate and midrange, respectively, for P. sciera.
All species of Percina are carnivorous, most species feeding on aquatic insect larvae such as chironomids (midges), black flies, ephemeropterans (mayflies), and hydropsychids (caddisflies).
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Wikipedia