Chesapeake Fantail Darter

A naming discrepancy

ITIS lists barratti as a valid species and records the older combinations Boleosoma barratti, Hololepis barratti and Etheostoma fusiforme barratti. The latter connects it with literature on the swamp or scalyhead darter complex. These names should not be silently combined with the separate fantail darter lineage.

Sources: Etheostoma barratti taxonomic record

Florida habitat, food, and lifespan

A 2020 study followed fish identified as Etheostoma fusiforme barratti in Hatchet Creek, part of Florida’s Suwannee River drainage. The study found them over sand and mud in places with dense plants and woody debris. These observations concern the barratti lineage explicitly, rather than an assumed habitat shared by every darter.

Midge larvae and water fleas were the most frequent foods recorded. Smaller fish took proportionally more small prey, while larger fish consumed larger food items. Field observations suggested survival to about fourteen months; some individuals lived eighteen months in an aquarium. Those two figures describe different settings and should not be merged into an average wild lifespan.

The largest specimen collected in that study was a reproductively mature male measuring 50 millimetres standard length, or 59 millimetres total length. It was a local study maximum, not a demonstrated limit for every population.

Sources: Etheostoma barratti taxonomic record; Life History of the Swamp Darter, Etheostoma fusiforme, in Florida (Flemming and Page, 2020)

Reading older records

The distinction matters when comparing habitat accounts. A record under barratti or fusiforme barratti refers to this scientific-name lineage; a record under flabellare humerale belongs to the Chesapeake fantail lineage. Until the common-name discrepancy is resolved, use the scientific name when comparing this entry with a field guide or museum record.

Sources: Etheostoma barratti taxonomic record