Halloween darter
species of fish
The Halloween darter (Percina crypta) is a small freshwater fish native to North America. It is found in Georgia and Alabama in the drainage basin of the Apalachicola River, specifically in the Flint River system and the Chattahoochee River system. It prefers shallow, fast-flowing areas with gravel bottoms in small and medium-sized rivers. It was first described in 2008, having not previously been distinguished from the Blackbanded darter (P. nigrofasciata), formerly thought to occur in the same watershed. Blackbanded darter has since been split again with Westfall's darter now recognised from the Apalachicola drainage. The species is somewhat variable, being generally blackish dorsally, with some individuals having indistinct saddle-like barring. Males have orange and dark lateral striping while females have dark stripes and a yellowish-green belly. At a maximum standard length of 101 mm (4 in), males are slightly larger than females, and both sexes develop distinctive orange barring on the edge of the first dorsal fin during the breeding season.
The Halloween darter has a limited range and a fragmented distribution. The main threat faced by the species is a deterioration in the quality of its habitat.
“Halloween darter” enters the record as species of fish. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Halloween, darter and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5686873. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008.
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This entry incorporates text from “Halloween darter” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.