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Bruce W Stallsmith, Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Virginia: P. E. Bugas, Jr., C. D. Hilling, V. Kells, M. J. Pinder, D. A. Wheaton, and D. J. Orth. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. 195. pages. US$27.95 (Softcover)., Fisheries, Volume 45, Issue 3, March 2020, Page 164, https://doi.org/10.1002/fsh.10405
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Virginia is the northeastern end of an arc that sweeps southwestward to Mississippi containing high freshwater fish diversity. The new Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Virginia takes on the daunting challenge of covering the 226 species of freshwater fishes found in the state in the abbreviated format of a true field guide. The authors succeed in this task, producing a book that is both informative and portable. The book's format makes it useful to a wide range of potential users, including fishers, professional biologists, and those interested in keeping native species in aquaria.
The book begins with several small chapters of background, such as an introduction to fish anatomy, how to catch fish, and management and conservation. Species accounts are organized by family in ascending order of phylogenetic derivation, starting with the Petromyzontidae and ending with the Percidae. Each species account includes a state range map with a solid green blot to show distribution, followed by brief observations on size, habitat, abundance, and status. A brief paragraph summarizes description, reproduction, food, and notes. Species accounts do not include information such as scale or fin ray counts. The authors explicitly refer readers to the older and more comprehensive Freshwater Fishes of Virginia (Jenkins and Burkhead 1994) for such information, which is better used in a lab rather than in the field.
