Lepomis punctatus
(Valenciennes, 1831) · speciesAt a glance
Sources9 archives
Databases and archives Lepomis punctatus's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation3 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility9 125 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI6 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics9 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome ~0.94 Gbp↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
Catalogue of LifeCOLtaxonomy↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The spotted sunfish (Lepomis punctatus), also known as a stumpknocker, is a member of the freshwater sunfish family Centrarchidae and order perciformes. The redspotted sunfish, redear sunfish and pumpkinseed sunfish are its closest relatives. Lepomis punctatus is olive-green to brown in color with black to reddish spots at the base of each scale that form rows of dots on the side. The scientific name punctatus refers to this spotted pattern. It was first described in 1831 by Valenciennes. The spotted sunfish is a warmwater native of the Southeastern United States that inhabits areas of slow moving water. It is a benthic insectivore. Spotted sunfish do not commonly exceed 10 cm and a weight of 3 oz. It has some value as a pan fish and is occasionally caught by bream anglers. Spotted sunfish exhibit similar breeding behavior to other sunfishes. A single male guards a nest with multiple females. It is evaluated by the IUCN as a Least concern species and shows little danger of decline or high sensitivity to habitat changes. It has been suggested that it could be used as an indicator species, making it valuable to stream management. The spotted sunfish is a habitat generalist, but prefers complex habitats. It has not been established as an invasive species in other parts of the world. Originally Lepomis punctatus and Lepomis miniatus were both classified as the same species Lepomis punctatus. Morphological differences and molecular evidence supported a significant difference in the eastern and western species of Lepomis punctatus. The species was divided into subspecies Lepomis punctatus punctatus in the east and Lepomis punctatus miniatus in the west. Later (1992) miniatus was elevated into its own species.Warren, M.L. Variation of the spotted sunfish, Lepomis punctatus complex (Centrarchidae): morphometrics, pigmentation and species limits. Bulletin- Alabama Museum of Natural History. (2008)
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology1
Habitat & environment2
Other traits1
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Lepomis punctatus has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
The complete instruction manual Lepomis punctatus carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type9 125 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions14 of 30 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record | 2 114 |
| University of Alabamalocation not on record | 291 |
| North Carolina Museum of Natural Scienceslocation not on record | 156 |
| Texas Memorial Museum, Texas Natural History Collectionlocation not on record | 132 |
| Montgomery, US | 129 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 108 |
| Southeastern Louisiana University, Vertebrate Museumlocation not on record | 77 |
| New Haven, US | 70 |
| Washington, US | 64 |
| Champaign, US | 59 |
| Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record | 48 |
| Cambridge, US | 31 |
| Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record | 23 |
| Ohio State University - Fish Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM)location not on record | 17 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 16 |
| Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratorylocation not on record | 13 |
| University of Minnesota, James Ford Bell Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 12 |
| Toronto, CA | 8 |
| ASUlocation not on record | 7 |
| APSUlocation not on record | 5 |
| Chicago, US | 5 |
| CASlocation not on record | 4 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 4 |
| 4 | |
| Paris, FR | 2 |
| Vancouver, CA | 2 |
| Central Michigan University Museum of Cultural and Natural Historylocation not on record | 2 |
| München, DE | 2 |
| Los Angeles, US | 1 |
| ISUAlocation not on record | 1 |
Where the DNA of Lepomis punctatus was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.