![]() But this rightful recognition would not come but a century later. ![]() And unbeknownst to Lacépède and Dolomieu, smallmouth bass thrive in streams underlain with dolomitic limestone.Īnother native Frenchman, Constantine Rafinesque, an eccentric professor living and teaching in Kentucky is credited with recognizing the spotted bass in 1819. Dolomieu comes in honor of Lacépède’s friend, a geologist and disciple of Izzak Walton. It’s a misnomer that has stood nearly 200 years and now designates all the black basses. Micropterus, Latin meaning small fin, referred to the small part of the fin torn away. Unfortunately, the soft dorsal fin of the mounted specimen was torn, giving the appearance of two distinct soft dorsals. He saw his first real black bass specimen, a mounted smallmouth, in 1802. Lacépède relied on drawings and a narrative of what the fish looked like sent to him from a colleague in South Carolina. This early description of the life history of fishes included a description of the largemouth bass as a new species. Count Lacépède who authored Histoire Naturelle des Poissons in 1800, was the first to pay any attention to the basses. ![]() But just as France helped us overcome British tyranny, so too did France’s naturalists help us understand our natural world-and that included the black basses. You can be certain that after the American Revolution our young country wanted little to do with England. Well, our North American bass are indeed perch-like, but the 16 fishes on our chart hold little in common besides their name. The American moniker "bass" is a corruption of the German epithet "barsch," meaning perch-like. ![]() What’s in a name? A lot if you look under the surface. ![]()
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