For the past 15 years, we have been traveling to rivers along the eastern Gulf, lower Atlantic Coast, and upper Midwest, accumulating material from these sparsely represented areas. In the last two years, we have been collecting tissues for molecular systematic analysis. We have accomplished this by teaming with fellow ichthyologists and state fishery biologists, and assisting in large river sampling trips arranged for game fish monitoring or conservation purposes. By participating in these efforts, we have been able to collect tissues and large numbers of museum specimens from different parts of the ranges of most ictiobine species. Colleagues in Canada are presently sending us tissues and photographs of ictiobines from the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay drainages of Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. We soon hope to network with ichthyologists in Texas and New Mexico (Dean Hendrickson of the Texas Memorial Museum, Kirk Winemiller of Texas A&M University, Gary Garrett of Texas Parks and Wildlife, and Steve Plantania of the Museum of Southwestern Biology) for assistance collecting specimens and tissues of all forms occurring in the southwestern U.S.
We are presently collaborating with Dr. Salvador Contreras Balderas (who trained with PI Suttkus) and Dr. Lourdes Lozano Villano of Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon to study material in the fish collection there and for the collection of specimens and tissues from Northern Mexico. In 1999, 2001, and 2002, PI Bart traveled to Mex�co with Dr. John Lyons of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to establish collaborations with ichthyologists in central and southern Mexico. We have established collaborations with Dr. Franciso Garcia de Leon of Universidad Autonoma de Victoria in Ciudad Victoria, Dr. Guillermo Salgado of Universidad Autonoma de Mexico and Sr. Eduardo Soto Galera of Instituto Polit�cnico Nacional in Mexico, DF, and Drs. Edmundo Di�z Pardo and Raul Pineda Lopez of Universidad Autonoma de Quer�taro in Quer�taro. We were able to collect specimens and tissue of Ictiobus labiosus from the R�o P�nuco system, and I. bubalus from the R�o San Fernando system in NE Mexico. We obtained tissues form specimens from three populations of I. meridionalis (R�o Popalo�pan, Coatzocoalcos and Usumacinta). We are requesting no funding from NSF for this work. We have been funding our travel to Mexico with our own resources and with generous field support from our Mexican colleagues. We are presently jointly seeking funding from Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnolog�a (CONACyT) for four additional trips to Mexico over the next two years to obtain additional specimens and tissues from all parts of the ranges of Mexican forms.
Through these
means, we hope to obtain all of the specimens and tissues we need to
complete this study. We will use preserved museum material to examine
patterns of geographic variation in gross morphology and to establish
reliable characters for the identification of species at different life
stages. Our approach to morphological aspects of the revision will be to
first work through material in the Tulane Fish Collection species by
species, and then travel to other museums to study types and work up
material the Tulane collection is lacking. Ictiobines are large fish that
are not easily shipped.
Traveling to other collections will give us the opportunity to
study specimens on site, and may afford us additional opportunities to
collect fresh tissues for molecular sequencing work.
