Saluda darter

The Saluda darter (Etheostoma saludae) is a species of darter endemic to the eastern United States, where it occurs in the Saluda River of South Carolina. It inhabits mud-bottomed, sand-bottomed, and rock-bottomed pools of slow to moderate headwaters and creeks . This species can reach a length of 4.3 cm (1.7 in).^[1] It is plain in color with brown on theback and sides and a yellow to white belly. The sides have a dozen or so brown blotches and arespeckled with brown dots.

Hubbs and Cannon (1935) first described the Saluda darter (Etheostoma saludae) from the Saluda River system of the Santee drainage. They described the fish as a separate species from the Carolina darter (Etheostoma collis). Collette (1962) was uncertain if E. saludae was specifically or subspecifically different from E. collis collis, the Carolina darter of the Pee Dee and Catawba (Santee drainage) drainages and E. collis lepidinionof the Roanoke, Neuse and Cape Fear drainages. Collette (1962) and Page (1983) noted E. saludae differed from the two Carolina darter subspecies principally in having interorbital pores (2 versus 0) and in number of anal spines (2 versus 1). Kuehne and Barbour (1983) listed the Saluda darter as a separate species but stipulated, “…the two forms (saludae and collis) may notactually be specifically distinct.” Jenkins and Burkhead (1994) stated they found no “sufficiently distinctive” character for taxonomic recognition of E. saludae or subspecific recognition withinthe E. collis group. Robins et al. (1991), Rohde et al. (1994) and Nelson et al. (2004) followed that the Saluda darter was conspecific with the Carolina darter; all adopted the scientific name E.collis for the broadened species with no subspecific distinctions. However, Rohde (pers. comm.)now feels E. saludae may be specifically or subspecifically different. Currently, it is still not clear if E. saludae is a separate species from E. collis; however, there is sufficient genetic andmorphologic difference between the two that they should be managed separately as evolutionary significant units (J. Quattro, pers. comm.).

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