Linked are images of hybrids I made in lab several years back. I took a mass of eggs from a single female pumpkinseed and divided it into several lots. Each lost was fertilized by a different male representing the following species; northern bluegill, green sunfish, redear, warmouth, central longear sunfish, western dollar sunfish, redspotted sunfish, and orangespotted sunfish. Each group was raised in aquaria well past sexual maturity to see what they look like and if they were fertile. I had at least 20 individuals per lot except from the warmouth cross to choose from.
Of particular interest to this thread was the redear hybrid. The redear hybrid had very little pattern compared to the others. I do not think pumpkinseed and redear are close relatives.
http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/topic/5228-known-pumpkinseed-hybrids/?hl=hybrid
