Laserfiche WebLink
138 <br />KAEDING ET AL. <br />TABLE 1.-Variable loadings for the principal com- <br />ponent analysis of loge-transformed morphologic mea- 100 <br />surements taken from 597 specimens of Gila spp. (> 250 <br />mm in total length) from the Colorado River at Black <br />Rocks, Colorado, 1983-1985. U so <br /> <br /> z <br /> <br />Principal Principal w <br />~ <br />component component w 0 <br />Morphologic measurement I II LL <br />Fork length 0.940 -0.112 z 100 <br />Depth of nuchal depression 0.530 0.768 c <br />Head length 0.851 -0.417 a <br />Distance between insertion of 50 <br />pectoral and pelvic fins 0.807 -0.398 <br />Length of dorsal fin base 0.867 0.279 <br />Length of anal fin base 0.866 0.367 <br />Caudal peduncle length 0.906 0.209 0 <br />Caudal peduncle de th 0 634 -0 591 <br />p <br />only 1(0.4%) of the humpback chub and 19 (7.1 %) <br />of the roundtail chub failed to be supported by <br />the principal component analysis (Figure 1). When <br />the field taxonomic designations in Figure I were <br />replaced by sex determinations, we saw no evi- <br />dence of clustering. Our analysis based on eight <br />morphologic measurements had a greater ability <br />to assign specimens to species than an analysis of <br />a similar number of largely different measure- <br />ments taken from humpback and roundtail chubs <br />in the Yampa River (Douglas et al. 1989). <br />Forty-nine (86%) of the specimens designated <br />as unclassified Gila sp. in the field clustered with <br />humpback chub (Figure 1). Although this suggests <br />that field personnel were conservative in their <br />classification of humpback chub, pairwise chi- <br />square analyses of the relative frequencies of the <br />various dorsal-anal fin ray count combinations <br />showed that the unclassified Gila sp. that clustered <br />with humpback chub were not entirely humpback <br />chub. Highly significant (P < 0.01) differences in <br />ray-count frequencies occurred among all taxa <br />(Table 2). The unclassified Gila sp. group appar- <br />ently included some roundtail chub, hybrids, or <br />backcross individuals with ray-count combina- <br />tions that differed from those of humpback chub. <br />15 4 14 <br />10 12 <br />HUMPBACK 19 <br />CHUB 3 <br />6 9 <br />10 17 <br />4 4 0 01 7 5 11 7 <br />ROUNDTAIL 29 <br />CHUB 3 4 <br />8 8 <br />13 <br />12 9 <br />7 21 7 <br />1 5 1 1 1 3 6 13 2 <br />MAY JUNE JULY <br />MONTH <br />FIGURE 2.-Seasonal changes in the frequency of oc- <br />currence of expressible gametes in female (closed bars) <br />and male (open bars) humpback chub and roundtail chub <br />of mature size in the Colorado River at Black Rocks, <br />Colorado, 1983 and 1984. Numbers are sample sizes. <br />Not included in the figure are 73 fish collected in April <br />and May, none of which showed expressible gametes. <br />Seasonal Changes in Reproductive Characters <br />We found no important differences between <br />years in either the occurrence of expressible ga- <br />metes or gonadosomatic indices, and those data <br />were pooled within species. Spawning of the <br />humpback chub and roundtail chub temporally <br />overlapped in 1983 and 1984. We captured female <br />humpback chub with expressible ova between late <br />June and late July, whereas female roundtail chub <br />with such ova were captured between mid-June <br />and late July (Figure 2). Although our infrequent <br />sampling in 1985 did not allow us to estimate <br />spawning time, we captured a female humpback <br />chub with flowing ova on 28 June. As in most <br />fishes, the period when male humpback and <br />roundtail chubs expressed milt generally lasted <br />longer than the period during which females ex- <br />pressed ova (Figure 2). <br />Declines in gonadosomatic indices were closely <br />TABLE 2.-Frequency (percent) of combinations of dorsal and anal fin rays (dorsallanal) for humpback chub, <br />unclassified Gila sp., and roundtail chub longer than 250 mm total length. Fish were collected from the Colorado <br />River at Black Rocks, Colorado, 1983-1985. <br />Number of dorsal fin rays/number of anal fin rays <br />Taxon N 8/9 8/10 9/8 9/9 9/10 9/11 10/9 10/10 10/1] 10/12 <br />t~ <br />Humpback chub 269 0.0 3.3 0.4 11.2 65.4 0.7 0.7 17.8 0.4 0.0 <br />Unclassified Gila sp.a 49 2.0 4.1 2.0 34.7 40.8 0.0 0.0 10.2 4.1 2.0 <br />Roundtail chub 250 6.8 0.4 2.0 72.0 18.4 0.0 0.0 0.4 0.0 0.0 <br />a Limited to specimens that clustered with humpback chub in the principal component analysis (see Figure 1). <br />