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<br />in the mainstream Colorado River near Yuma ("Fort Yuma," Jordan and <br />Everman, 1986; see also Meek, 1904 and Follett, 1961); thence upstream <br />to the Virgin River system in Utah (Fig. 1). However, from biological <br />considerations alone, there is good reason to believe that woundfin <br />occurred further upstream on the Verde, Salt, and Gila rivers. <br />As detailed by Miller and Hubbs (1960), the stated type locality "San <br />Luis Valley, Western Colorado (Cope 1874)," was an obvious error, many <br />~!, of which were perpetrated by collectors associated with the Wheeler <br />Survey in 1871 to-1874. Miller and Hubbs also rejected as erroneous <br />locality data the records from the "Colorado Chiquito River, Arizona" <br />(Bohlke, 1953) on the basis of no other indications that the fish ever <br />inhabited that stream. The Wheeler expedition maintained a base at <br />Toquerville, Washington County, Utah, in 1872, on LaVerkin Creek (Wheeler, <br />1889), from where they worked in the Virgin River canyon and traveled <br />to St. G+~orge. It seems likely that the type series of P. argentissimus <br />was taken from the mainstream Virgin River (Miller and Hubb, 1960). <br />PRESENT DISTRIBUTION <br />Woundfin range from LaVerkin Springs on the mainstream of the Virgin <br />River and the lower portion of LaVerkin Creek in Utah, downstream to <br />Lake Mead, Nevada (Fig. 2). A single specimen was taken from the middle <br />Moapa River, Clark County, Nevada, in the late 1960's (Deacon and Bradley, <br />1972). The Moapa River was formerly a tributary to the Virgin River, but <br />both streams now flow into Lake Mead. The species has been transplanted <br />into four localities in attempts to establish populations. In one locality, <br />the Hassayampa River in Arizona, reproduction occurred in the summer of <br />1972 but a flood in September of 1972 evidently destroyed the entire pop- <br />ulation because subsequent collecting efforts have failed to yield any <br />woundfin (Minekley, pers. comm., 1977). In March, 1972 they were also <br />placed in the Salt River, Arizona, but none have been taken there since. <br />~: In Sycamore Creek, Agua Fria drainage, Arizona, a few specimens stocked. <br />in spring, 1972 survived-the severe flooding of 1972-3, and two individuals <br />collected in late August, 1973 were gravid. None has been collected in <br />Sycamore Creek since 1973. The fourth locality,-the Paria River, Arizona- <br />Utah, was stocked several times between 1969 and 1972. No woundfin were <br />found during surveys in May, 1974 and May, 1975 (Unpub. Data, Arizona Game <br />~', and Fish Stocking Records). <br />HABITAT REQUIREMENTS <br />~~ Woundfin are most often collected from runs over sand bottoms, usually <br />near some type of cover, where the average water depth is 25 cm (+19) <br />and where the average current is 0.42 m/sec (+0.28) (Cross, 1975). They <br />appear to prefer physically unmodified habitats, but are found in areas <br />that have been greatly modified. Woundfin reach peak abundance in areas <br />of mobile sand bottom where the substrate shifts slowly downstream under <br />the influence of near-laminar currents. Depths preferred by the species <br />3 <br />appear to range from 5 to 35 centimeters but disturbed fish move rapidly <br />