Rediscovery of Labidesthes sicculus (Atherinidae) in Lake Texoma
(Oklahoma-Texas)
Kerri E. Pratt; Chad W. Hargrave; Keith B. Gido
The Southwestern Naturalist, Vol. 47, No. 1. (Mar., 2002), pp. 142-147.
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Mon Oct 22 10:59:37 2007
1 4'2
? h p Southruestern
lVnturalz~t
vol. 45, no. I
e n el suelo, esta observation testifica las habil 9 8 6 ) , cliff swallows (PetrochelidonpyrrhonotaHolthuijzen et al., 1987), and European star- lidades akreas del halcon.
lings (Sturnus vulgaris-White, 1962) in aerial
pursuits. However, these observations were o f
multiple high-angle dives by t h e falcon
ARNOLD,
L. W. 1942. The aerial capture of a whitethrough flocks o f birds, whereas the observathroated swift by a pair of falcons. Condor 44:
tion reported here is o f a single low-angle
280.
stoop. None o f the other sightings noted the ENDERSON,
J. H . 1964. A study of the prairie falcon
in the central Rocky Mountain region. Auk 81:
roll-over behavior that I observed.
332-352.
There are 2 documented accounts o f other
A. M. A,, P. A. DL-LEY,
JJ. C . HAGER,S.
species o f falcons taking swifts i n flight. '4rnold HOLTH~IJZEN,
A. SMITH,;L\.I) K. N. M'ooI). 1987. Piracy, insecti(1942) observed a pair o f large filcons thought
\or?, and cannibalism of prairie falcons (Falco
to be peregrines (Falco pcregn'nus) working tomrxicanic.~)nesti~lgin southwestern Idaho. Jourgether t o capture a white-throated swift. O n e
nal of Raptor Research 21:32-33.
falcon chased the swift, while the other dove JOJ~.\NSSON,
C . A,, & N O C. M. WHSI'E.1995. An h e r o n it from above and made the capture. T h e
ican kestrel captures a white-throated nvift in
flight. Journal of Raptor Research 29:284.
second account (Johansson and b%ite, 1995)
involved an ,%nerican kestrel (Falco spar-omius) KAISER,T.,J. 1986. Behavior and energetics of prairie
Falcons (Falco mrxicanu.r) breeding in the western
that approached a white-throated swift head-on
Mojave Desert. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,
and slightly below. ,4s the swift climbed, the
Llniversity of California, L.os Angeles.
kestrel flared upward and made the capture.
RPsum~n-Observe a u n halcon rnexicano
(Falco mexicanzts) capturar a u n vencejo e n w e lo. El halchn se acerco al verlcejo desde atras
hasta que estuvo u n poco debajo de su propuesta presa. C o m o el vencejo subia para evitar la depredacion, el halcon se volteo justo
debajo del vencejo y con sus garras agarro su
presa. Aunque el halc6n es principalmerlte u n
cazador de mamiferos y aves que suelen andar
SQI:IKFS,J . R., S. H. AUDFRSON,
IKD R. O A K I . ~ ; . ~ .
1989. Food habits of nestling prairie falcons in
Canlpbell County, Wyoming. Journal of Raptor
Research 23:157-161.
~'EBSTER,
H., JR. 1944. Survey of the prairie falcon
in C:olorado. Auk 61 :609-616.
WHITE,C. M. 1962. Prairie falcon displays acciptrine
and cirrinine hunting methods. Condor 64:439440.
Szrbmitled 1 Nouembm. 1999. Accepted 23 January 2001.
A4ssocinteEditor 7ua.c William H. Baltosse?:
REDISCOVERY OF LABDESTHES SZCCULUS (ATHERINIDAE) IN
( OKLAHOMA-TEXAS)
W(E
TEXOMA
Tam Noble Oklahoma Musmm ofhTaturalHzstorl, Unzuersztj of Oklahoma Bzolog-~calStatzon, Llepartment oj zoo log^,
Unzumszt>of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73072
"Correspondent cwhargraue@ou~ d u
Displacement o f native species from their
habitats has been linked t o the introduction o f
nonindigenous species (Ross, 1991; Townsend
and Crowl, 1991; Douglas et al., 1994). An example o f this occurred i n Lake T e x o m a
(Oklahoma-Texas) where the abundance o f
native Labidesthes sicculus (brook silverside) decreased after the arrival o f Menidia beryllina (in-
land silverside) i n 1953. Riggs and B o n n
(1959) reported L. sicculus as o n e o f the most
c o m m o n species, second only to Dorosoma crpedia?zum (gizzard shad), i n Lake Texoma from
1948 through 1952. However, it declined rapidly over the next 3 years, though it was still
abundant i n tributaries t o the reservoir in 1955
(Dowell, 1956; Riggs and Bonn, 1959). By
March 2002
Notes
1958, Riggs and Bonn (1959) no longer found
specimens in the tributaries or reservoir despite considerable collecting effort. Contrary
to this finding, in 1967, 2 adults were taken
from the Buncombe Creek arm of the reservoir (Mense, 1967), and Smith and Powell
(1971) collected a few individuals in Brier
Creek, a tributary to Lake Texoma, suggesting
that L. sicculus remained in the reservoir and
tributary creeks, albeit in low abundance. However, W. J. Matthews (pers. comm.) stated that
in more than 20 years of sampling Brier Creek,
no L. sicculus have been taken, and a thorough
sampling of Buncombe Creek in 1995 failed to
produce a single specimen (Lienesch et al.,
2000).
Because the decline of L. sicculus was coincident with the introduction of M. beryllina,
competitive exclusion was suggested as a possible mechanism (Riggs and Bonn, 1959;
McComas and Drenner, 1982). In a series of
laboratory experiments, McComas and Drenner (1982) showed that M. beryllina more successfully foraged on copepods than did L. sicculus because the mouth morphology of M. bmyllina allows more efficient suction feeding. Because McComas and Drenner (1982) could not
show that food resources were limiting in Lake
Texoma, they could only speculate that competition between the species caused the decline of L. sicculus. However, in early summer,
crustacean zooplankton often occur in densities of less than 100 individuals per liter, which
is sufficiently low to result in possible competition (W. J. Matthews, pers. comm.).
Despite reports of its extirpation, L. sicculus
either has remained present or has reinvaded
restricted habitats of the reservoir. Herein, we
report the occurrence of L. sicculus at 7 locations in Lake Texoma based on shoreline seining in summer 1999.
Fishes were collected at 41 sites on Lake Texoma (Fig. 1) with a 7.62-m X 1.8-m bag seine
(4.8-mm mesh) and a 4.6-m X 1.2-m straight
seine (3.2-mm mesh) from 14 to 26 July 1999.
Four adjacent 25-m reaches were sampled at
each site. For each sample, the bag seine was
hauled offshore parallel to the shoreline at 1.0
to 1.5-m depth for 25-m, and the straight seine
was used to sample all shoreline habitats in this
same reach. Samples from each of the 4 reaches were pooled for each site.
Physical and chemical variables were mea-
0
Coves with L. sicculus
Coves without L. sicculus
Exposed sites without L. sicculus
Dam
FIG. 1-Location of sample sites o n Lake Texoma.
Shaded circles indicate coves with L. s i c r u l u s , open
squares indicate coves without L. s i c n c l u s , a n d open
circles indicate exposed sample sites without L. sicculus.
sured concurrent with fish sampling to examine the relationship between environmental
parameters and distribution of silversides. Dissolved oxygen concentration, conductivity, and
pH were measured with a HydroLab Scout 11,
and water transparency was estimated with a
Secchi disk at each site. In addition, one person followed the seiners and noted the occurrence of major substrate types for each 25-m
reach sampled. Only substrates that occupied
>30% of the area were included. Substrate categories included silt (<0.12-mm), sand (0.12
to 1-mm), gravel-cobble (1 to 256-mm) and
boulder (>256-mm). The number of reaches
containing each substrate type was divided by
4 (total number of reaches sampled) to give a
percent occurrence of each substrate type for
that site (i.e., 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%).Fish
specimens were preserved in 10% formalin
and, after fixation, transferred to 50% isopropyl alcohol for permanent storage at the Sam
Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to
test for differences in mean Secchi depth, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, abundance of M.
beryllina, and percent occurrence of major substrate types among: 1) coves with L. sicculus
TABLE
1-Percent volume of different food items
found in guts of Id. szcculus and M. bmjllina. All specimens were taken in July 1999 from sheltered coves
where these species co-occurred in Lake Texoma.
exposed shorelines without L. sicculus ( n =
26).
Although mean abundance of M. beryllina
was lowest in coves with L. sicculus present,
there was no significant difference arnong the
L. szcculus
b r ~ j l l i ~ z a 3 habitats (ANOVA, F?,,, = 1.33, P = 0.275; Fig.
Food item
( n = 19)
( n = 15)
2). There was a significant difference (F,,,, =
10.66, P < 0.001) in Secchi depth among habTerrestrial insects
81.O
4.7
7.4
19.3
Rotifers
itats. Tukey's multiple-comparison tests indi0.0
13.9
Seeds
cated that coves without L. sicculus had signif0.0
33.0
Algae
icantly lower Secchi depth than either exposed
Aquatic insects
7.9
17.2
sites or coves with L. sicculus. No significant dif0.0
3.7
Fish
ference was found among habitats for conduc0.0
11.9
Detritus
tivity
= 0.09, P = 0.918), or dissolved oxygen (F3x,,
= 1.63, P = 0.210). There were significant differences anlong sites in the proporpresent; 2) coves without L. sicculus present; tions of silt (I&, = 3.61, P = 0.007), sand (F.,,,,
and 3) exposed sites without L. sicculus pres- = 4.21, P = 0.022), and cobble-boulder (F,,,,
ent. If a difference was detected with ANOVA, = 3.84, P = 0.030; Fig. 3). Tukev's multiplepost-hoc pairwise comparisons between habi- comparison tests indicated that exposed sites
tats were tested using Tukey's multiple-com- had a lower proportion of silt than sites withparison procedure (Toothaker, 1993). Percent out L. sicculz~s, and that coves with L. sicculus
occurrence of major substrate types was arc- had a higher proportion of cobble-boulder
sine transformed prior to analysis to better ap- than coves without L. sicculus. Although the
overall ANOVA indicated a significant differproximate normality.
Ovary development and egg stages were clas- ence in proportion of sand among habitats,
sified for 5 female L. sicculus based on criteria Tukey's tests failed to detect a difference
defined by Heins and Rabito (1986). Nine among groups. Yo significant difference was
males also were rated as either mature or im- found in proportion of gravel among sites
mature based on testes development. In addi- (E;,,, = 0.71, P = 0.498).
Of the 5 females examined, 4 had mature
tion, the anterior third of the intestine from
15 M. beryllina and 19 L. sicculus was examined gonads. In addition, the fifth individual had
for gut contents using a stereoscope. All indi- ripe eggs. Of the 9 males examined, 7 had maviduals examined were from sites where both ture testes.
There was little overlap in the diets of L. sicspecies occurred. Gut contents were spread on
a Petri dish with a reference grid, and relative culus and 11f. beryllinn (Schoener's index =
volume of food items was estimated by approx- 0.20). Terrestrial invertebrates were most
imating the area occupied by each item. Food abundant in the diet of L. sicculz~s,whereas LZI.
items were classified into major resource Derjllina consumed a variety of items including
groups (Table 1) and Schoener's index was algae, rotifers, cladocera, and detritus (Table
used to assess dietary overlap between the spe- 1) . Labidesthes ~sicculu.r and M. beryllina both
cies (Schoener, 1971) based on relative vol- have been reported to consume a wide range
of foods including aquatic invertebrates, rooumes of items found in their diet.
We collected 189 L. siccu,lus at 7 of the 41 plankton, and small terrestrial invertebrates
sites on Lake Texoma. Overall, L, sicculus was (e.g., Robison and Buchanan, 1988).
Finding moderate numbers of L. sicculus
ninth in abundance of 41 species captured. All
sites where L. sicculus was captured were locat- with iM. beryllina in Lake Texoma suggests these
ed in sheltered coves with marinas. Because I-. species coexist in this reservoir, Although L.
sicculus occurred only in these coves, compar- sicculus once was broadly distributed in the resisons of M. beryllina abundance and environ- ervoir (Riggs and Bonn, 1959), we found it
mental variables were made among 3 groups only in sheltered habitats, whereas IM.b q l l i n a
of sites: 1) coves with L. sicculus present ( T Z = was broadly distributed. The fact that water
7); 2) coves without L. .sieculus ( n = 8 ) ;and 3) transparency and substrate composition dif-
March 2002
Notes
FIG. 2-Comparisons of M, berjllinc~abundance and environmeiital variables from exposed sites without
L. sicculus, coves with I,. sicculzcs, and coves without L. siccult~s.Error bars represent 1 .YE. Bars with identical
letters are not statistically different based on Tukey's multiple-comparison procedure.
FIG. 3-Comparisons of percentage of reaches containing each substrate type within exposed sites, sites
in coves with L. s i c n ~ l u spresent. and sites in coves without L. sicczclus present. Error bars represent 1 SE.
Bars with identical letters are not statistically diSSerent based on Tukey's multiple-comparison procedure.
146
?hr Soz~lhzuestm.Vntztrcil~st
fered between sites with L. sicculus and sites
without L. sicculus suggests that environmental
factors may regulate the abundance and distribution o f this species i n Lake Texoma. In a
smaller, Texas reservoir, Bettoli et al. (1991)
showed that 1M.beryllina and L. sicculus were
able to coexist in the presence o f dense vegetation, but when the vegetation was removed
by grass carp (Ctenopharjngodon idella) I,. sicc./~lus abundance declined. It seems the introduction o f IM. beryllina reduced the distribution
rather than extirpated I>. sicculus from Lake
Texoma.
Some aspect o f sheltered coves allows M . berjllina and L, sicculus to co-occur. A high proportion o f terrestrial invertebrates in the diet
o f I-. sicculus suggests this resource may be
more abundant i n sheltered coves than at exposed sites. Moreover, because these habitats
all had marinas, it is possible that artificial
lights attracted midges which supplemented
the diet o f L. sicculus. In general, coves have
been described as mesocosoms within reservoirs, with environmental gradients independent o f the main body (Kimmel et al., 1990).
T h e y are habitats sheltered from wind, have
high productivity, have high input o f allochthonous material, and o f t e n have different
fish assemblages from openwater areas (Matthews, 1998).
Shifts i n the feeding niche by L. sicculus may
help further explain the low overlap in diet
between L. sicculus and &I. beryllina in Lake
Texoma. Whereas both species are reported as
having similar food habits (Robison and Buchanan, 1988), changes in feeding niches o f fishes in response to competitors have been reported i n natural (Macan, 1977) and experimental systems (Werner and Hall, 1976). A
shift in feeding niche o f t e n reflects the feeding
morphology o f 1 o f the competing species and
the resources it is able to exploit (Gerking,
1994). Mouth morphology o f L. szcculus restricts this species t o a feeding niche composed
primarily o f terrestrial insects when in the presence o f M. beryllin,a.
It is possible the occurrence o f L. sicculz~sin
Lake Texoma is a result o f immigration from
nearby tributaries; however, the coves i n which
L. sicculus occurred were not connected directly t o perennial streams; thus, the fish would
have t o travel across the main body o f the lake,
from perennial streams, t o reach these habi-
vol. 47, no. 1
tats. Moreover, the current distribution o f I>.
sicculus may exist because o f bait-bucket introductions. T h e presence o f adults with mature
eggs suggests that L. sicculus reproduce in
these habitats and are likely self-sustaining
populations.
Reservoirs provide unique, constructed environments that have been colonized by numerous fish species (e.g., Gido et al., 2000).
Whereas some species thrive under these conditions, others (such as L. sicculus) may onlv
thrive in the absence o f competitors (e.g.,
Riggs and Bonn, 1959; McComas and Drenner,
1982; and this study) or i n the presence o f certain habitats (e.g., Bettoli et al. 1991; this
study). For example, T. M . Buchanan ( i n litt.)
found L. sicculus in 28 o f 31 Arkansas reservoirs; however, IM.beryllina occurred in only 6
o f the 28 reservoirs i n which L. sicculus was present. T h u s , i f a competitor, such as iM. beryllinu,
is present, L. sicc~~lus
may only be able to sustain populations i n restricted habitats. O u r
supposition is that L. sicculus, which was once
widespread i n the reservoir, cannot sustain a
large population i n Lake Texoma d u e to the
presence o f 121. brnyllina. However; the species
are able to coexist i n coves where water transparency is higher and substrate is coarse.
Course substrate may provide suitable spawning substrate for adhesive eggs that sink to the
b o t t o m and adhere t o submerged objects
(Robison and Buchanan, 1988). Furthermore,
sheltered coves, and possibly artificial lights
f r o m marinas, may provide an abundant
source o f terrestrial insects for adult L. siccz~lus.
It is likely that a combination o f spawning habitat and food resources i n these coves is irnportant for the survival o f L. sicculu., i n Lake
Texoma.
Resum~n-La pkrdida d e especies nativas
puede ser causada por la introducci6n d e especies n o natives e n hjbitas especificos. Un
ejemplo ocurri6 e n el Lago T e x o m a
(Oklahoma-Texas) , donde la abundancia del
pez nativo, Labidesthes sicculus, disminuyo e n el
embalse despuks d e la llegada d e Menidia buyllina e n 1953. En contra de las afirmaciones d e
la extirpation completa, de L. sicculus, se la especie estk todavia o reinvadi6 el lago y se encuentra e n las habitas restringidos del embalse.
El descubrimento de numeros moderados d e
L. sicculus junto con M. beryllina e n el Lago
March 2002
Notes
1-17
Reservoir ecosystems: conclusions and speculations. In: Thornton, K. M., B. L. Kimmel, and F.
E. Payne, editors. Reservoir limnology: ecological
perspectives. John Toley Xc Sons, S e w York. Pp.
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AND J. F.
LIEKESCH,
S~:HAF.FEK.
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in the fish assemblage of a small stream isolated
by a reservoir. Southwestern Naturalist 45:274288.
W\C:.W,T. T. 1977. The influence of predation on
the composition of fresh-water animal communities. Biological Review 52:45-70.
MATTHEWS,
W. J. 1998. Patterns in freshwatet- fish
ecolop. Chapman & Hall, New York.
MCCOMAS,S. R., .\NU R. M: DREKNER.
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replacement
in
a
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community:
siland the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural
verside feeding mechanics and competition, CaHistory provided equipment and facilities necessary
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to complete this project. D. Certain, D. W. Pogue,
39:815-821.
and G. D. Schtlell provided valuable advice and field
J. B. 1967. Ecology of the hlississippi silverassistance. The manuscript benefited by comments MENSE,
sides, ~Mrnidinaudpns, Hay, in Lake Texoma. UnJ. Matthews. Financial
by E. Marsh-Matthews and Mr.
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support was provided by the Army Corps of EngiNorman.
neers and the Environmental Protection Agency by
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KIMMEL,8. L., 0 . T. LISD, .LVD L. J. PALI.SON.1990. Arsoclnte E d z t o ~ujar Davzd R Edds
Texoma sugiere que estas especies pueden
coexistir. Aunque L. sicculus estaba distribuida
anteriormente por todas partes en el embalse,
se encuentra ahora s61o en habitats cubiertos,
y M. beryllzna se distribuye por todas partes.
Porque no encontramos una diferencia en las
variables de la quimica del agua, parece que
las caracteristicas fisicas de 10s habitats y la interacci6n con M. beryllzna determinan la distribuci6n de L. szcculus. Parece que la introducci6n de M. beryllina solamente redujo la distribuci6n de L. ~iccz~lus
en vez de extirparla del
embalse.