warmouth

Warmouth
Conservation status
Secure
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Order: Perciformes Family: Centrarchidae Genus: Lepomis Species: L. gulosus
Binomial name
Lepomis gulosus (Cuvier, 1829)
Synonyms
Chaenobryttus gulosus

The warmouth (Lepomis gulosus) is a species of freshwater fish. It is a member of the sunfish family (family Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. It is native to a wide area of the United States, from Minnesota to western Pennsylvania in the north and from the Rio Grande in New Mexico east to the Atlantic in the south, inhabiting the heavily vegetated, muddy-bottomed habitats typical of the sunfishes. The warmouth has also been stocked outside of its native range.

The warmouth's classification is disputed. Cuvier, in 1829, originally described it as a member of the obsolete genus Pomotis, and it was reclassified much later as a member of Chaenobryttus Gill, 1864, on the basis of genetic evidence. ITIS retains this classification, with the warmouth the only member of that genus. FishBase, however, follows the majority of the sources in considering the warmouth to be a member of Lepomis, Chaenobryttus being a subgenus thereof. [1] [2]

A warmouth.

An oddly patterned warmouth collected from the Flint River drainage

The warmouth's specific epithet, gulosus, derives from the Latin gulōsus (gluttonous). The origin of the common name "warmouth" is due to the stripes around the mouth of the fish bearing a resemblance to warpaint.

Besides their distinctive spotted patterns, warmouths can be easily identified and distinguished from other panfish or sunfish by their proportionally large mouths (except green sunfish which also have a proportionally large mouth). Other panfish of the same weight will have mouths 2-3 times smaller than that of the warmouth, whose oral proportions are in line with those of largemouth/black bass. It is often stated that warmouths have the body of a bream (a small common sunfish) and the head of a bass, leading to rumors that it is a man-made crossbreed.

Warmouths can be very aggressive, and will often strike at lures and baits even after being released by anglers moments before. They are rarely targeted by anglers but are an occassional accidential catch. The world record was caught in Florida and weighed 2lbs 7oz.

References

• FishBase: Lepomis gulosus
• ITIS: Chaenobryttus gulosus
• Ellis, Jack (1993). The Sunfishes-A Fly Fishing Journey of Discovery. Bennington, VT: Abenaki Publishers, Inc.. ISBN 0-936644-17-6. 

• Rice, F. Philip (1964). America's Favorite Fishing-A Complete Guide to Angling for Panfish. New York: Harper Row. 

• Rice, F. Philip (1984). Panfishing. New York: Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-943822-25-4.