Cytotaxonomy of the Bantam Sunfish Lepomis symmetricus (Centrarchidae). I. Robertsonian variation in a population from the Yazoo River Basin in Mississippi (U.S.A.)

SUMMARY

Karyotypes were prepared for Lepomis symmetricus, the Bantam Sunfish, that were collected from Bear Lake, an oxbow in the Yazoo River Basin from the northwestern part of the state of Mississippi (U.S.A.). The modal karyotype for this population has 40 chromosomes with an arm number of 48. However, there is considerable variation within the population as the diploid number varies from 38 to 43 with a constant arm number of 48 indicating that the variation is Robertsonian in nature. Post-zygotic rearrangements are also indicated as some individuals displayed as many as three different karyotypes within the gill epithelium.