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THE t.!dIYS~SITY OF "tlICFE!GAN „r ANN ARBOR. MICHIGAN. U.S.A. 48109 ti (~ MUEEUM OF ZOOLOGY v 17 February, 1981 Dr. Paul B. Holden Blp/ WEST, Inc. P.O. Box 3226 Logan, Utah 84321 Dear Paul: I have just gone over your draft of the bonytail recovery plan, made comments thereon, and enclose it with this letter. ' You did not use the gill-raker number on the second arch, which is particularly helpful in separating Gila elegans from the other two species (usually 18-21 vs. 12-17 in the others). When the Suttkus and Clemmer study of Gila cypha came out I was suspicious of their identification of juvenile G. cypha and G. elegans from Green River. I borrowed all three of the juveniles they illustrated. All have 9 dorsal and 9 anal rays, an almost impossible count for the bonytail. I reidentified these three juveniles as (1) G. robusta, with possible elegans influence; (2) G. robusta (not cypha) with likely cypha influence; and (3) a G. ele ans by robusta hybrid ( not elegans). We will be publishing these determinations before too long. At bottom, page 8, you refer to capture of juveniles in Green River; are these at Utah State, Fort Collins, your lab? I would like to see them. See also query on page 10 again, page 12, are the "three potential bonytails" available for study? A couple of years ago I borrowed the collection at University of Colorado from Grand Junction reported by Ellis (1914, Fishes of Colorado, p. 57). There were 25 juveniles: 21 G. robusta and 4 G. elegans, easily distinguished by fin-ray and vertebral counts. So both species were sympatric in the Colorado River (then called Grand River) at that time. I suspect that hybrids do occur in the upper Green River (p. 16) if you define it as including Jensen. Se my comment on page 16 and above. I would like to have the folloc,•ing papers you cite: Holden, 1980 Holden and Crest, 1981 Lanigan and Berry, 1979 Sincerely, ~~~'U-~ Robert R. Miller Curator of Fishes. Enc./RRM:cp