The pharyngeal apparatus of the Redear and Pumpkinseed could easily be similar by convergence. Genetic markers employed are not best for deep time divergence. I feel more comfortable with such analysis run on populations with a younger genus. For intergeneric comparisons I think better to be a combination of multiple nuclear and mitochondrial DNA loci. The problem is that this has been the only analysis to date attempting the family Centrarchidae. It does cost money to do it.
The part that caught my eye initially involved the Bantam Sunfish, which I know probably as well as any author out there. They have it lumped closest to the Green Sunfish. I know that critter as well. When you look closely at the Bantam Sunfish, it looks a lot more like the Banded Sunfish in particular, which has a lot in common with the Bluespotted Sunfish and Blackbanded Sunfishes. The life history of those four species is also very similar. Breeding them in aquariums where they can exhibit natural behaviors helps set them all apart from the genus Lepomis in which the Green Sunfish resides. Bantams did not generate viable hybrids with any listed as Lepomis sp. I tried to cross with it follow procedure described in my first post. Green Sunfish produces viable hybrids with all the other Lepomis, except for the Bantam Sunfish.
Then you have the Warmouth. There is a major directional viability issue with crosses you make with it and members of the genus Lepomis. None of the other crosses within Lepomis cause that problem. Warmouth also have huge behavioral differences when it comes to courtship and behaviors otherwise when compared to other the other Lepomis spp.
Bantams I think should be in Enneacanthus and Warmouth should be either outside or basal to the genus Lepomis.
Then you do not want to get me going on the Bluegill clan.
Last edited by Jim Wetzel; 03/02/21 03:35 PM.
