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9 <br />The Solution to the Cyprinodon bovinus Problem: <br />Eradication of a Pupfish Genome <br />Clark Hubbs <br />Department of Zoology <br />The University of Texas at Austin <br />Austin, Texas 78712 <br />The Leon Springs pupfish, Cyprinodon bovinus, is re- <br />stricted to the Leon Creek watershed, Pecos County, Texas. <br />Cyprinodon variegatus of unknown provenance released into the <br />creek between January and August, 1974, produced a major hybrid <br />swarm in the lower segment of Leon Creek and threatened the <br />genic purity of the species. The extensive efforts that re- <br />sulted in the elimination of phenotypic evidence of hybridiza- <br />tion are documented. <br />Cyprinodon bovinus was described by Baird and Girard (1853) based <br />on 16 specimens (Girard, 1859) collected from ';Leon's Springs, Texas" <br />in 1851 by John H. Clark. The Leon Springs pupfish has many affinities <br />with C. tularosa and C. pecosensis (Echelle and Echelle, 1978). As <br />no further specimens of Leon Springs pupfish have been obtained from <br />Leon Springs, it is appropriate to precisely identify the location and <br />date of the material. John H. Clark was a naturalist assigned to the <br />Mexican Boundary Survey. He is known to have accompanied Lt. Col. J. D. <br />Graham during his journey from Indianola (23 April, 1851) to the <br />boundary west of E1 Paso (13 September, 1851). It is assumed that Mr. <br />Clark was with Col. Graham during the entire trip west. Col. Graham <br />was in Castroville 19 May and Frontera 24 June. As Graham's profile <br />map (1852) has 29 calculated elevations (= night camps?) between <br />Castroville and Frontera (near E1 Paso) it is likely that they were <br />camped at Leon Springs in the second week of June 1851. The "General <br />Map" in Emory (1857), who succeeded Col. Graham after he had been re- <br />lieved of his command, includes two listings for Leon Springs (and <br />one King's Spring). The precise locations cannot be ascertained from <br />the map but they seem close to 310N., 1030W. Emory (1857:24c5) also re- <br />ported that Lt. A.W. Whipple had located "Leon Spring" at 30 53' 33.1" N, <br />103004' 13.0" W in 1850. Lt. Whipple who had preceded Col. Graham, was <br />west of El Paso when Mr. Clark was travelling to El Paso. (Whipple had <br />left Indianola in September 1850 and was in New Mexico in April 1851.) <br />Lt. Whipple's coordinates plot slightly too far west for the present <br />Leon Springs but there is no west longitude listed for the preceeding local- <br />ity ("Camanche" Spring) in Emory (1857). Under any circumstance the latitude <br />and longitude are even less appropriate for the alternate site as the latter <br />is due north of Comanche Springs. Major Emory (p. 135) further listed Leon <br />Springs as between Comanche and Varela (= Barrila) springs and 8.88 miles from