Distribution of the Threatened Leopard Darter, Percina pantherina (Osteichthyes: Percidae)

We evaluated the occurrence of the threatened leopard darter (Percina pantherina) in the Little River drainage in Oklahoma and Arkansas to comprehensively document the distribution of the species. Direct observation while snorkeling was used to determine presence. Leopard darters were absent from the Saline and mainstem Rolling Fork rivers. The species was widely distributed in the upper Mountain Fork and upper Little River drainages; populations occurred in the mainstrems and several tributaries of both of these streams. Small populations were found in the Cossatot River and the previously unsurveyed Robinson Fork of the Rolling Fork. Both of these populations were isolated and restricted to short stream reaches, and they lacked tributary refugia, thereby rendering them vulnerable to catastrophic extirpation.