Annotated Catalog of Type Specimens in the Illinois Natural History Survey Fish Collection

Abstract

The Fish Collection of the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) dates back to the late 1800s and the extensive surveys of Illinois fishes led by Dr. Stephen A. Forbes, director of the Survey's predecessor, the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History (ISLNH). From 1876 to 1903 Forbes, assisted by his esteemed colleague Robert E. Richardson and numerous field and laboratory personnel, collected and preserved over 200,000 specimens from more than 450 localities distributed in 93 of the 102 counties of Illinois. During this time, the ISLNH Collection served as the basis for several catalogs of Illinois fishes (Nelson 1876; Jordan 1878a; Forbes 1884; Large 1903), and provided material for the description of at least 25 species. This work culminated in the classic Fishes of Illinois written by Forbes and Richardson, published by the Survey in 1909 and reprinted in 1920 (although no publication date is given for the original volume, H.C. Oesterling, former INHS editor, lists the date as 1909 in Howard 1932:46). Accompanied by a separate atlas of distribution maps of 98 species, this comprehensive treatment of the state's ichthyofauna still is recognized as one of the finest publications on fishes. The INHS Fish Collection was expanded by Dr. Philip W. Smith, who worked as a systematic biologist at the Survey from 1942 until his retirement in 1979 (Burr and Page 1987). Over a period of 1 1 years from 1962 to 1972, Smith assembled a large collection of fishes from Illinois and neighboring states. The ichthyological surveys conducted by Smith, his students, and INHS staff led to the publication of a second Fishes of Illinois (Smith 1979). Smith's monograph provided identification keys, information on the ecology and taxonomy of Illinois fishes, and detailed distribution maps that documented changes in the state's fish fauna that had occurred since the survey of Forbes and Richardson. The size and geographic scope of the INHS collection have been considerably expanded in the past three decades; the collection now contains about 7 1 1 ,000 cataloged specimens (over 7 1 ,000 lots) of more than 1,800 species. A recent literature survey identified over 250 publications citing the use of INHS specimens over the past 40 years. Included are two publications that have greatly advanced both the professional and popular understanding of North American fishes: the Handbook of Darters (Page 1983) and A Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of North America North of Mexico (Page and Burr 1991).