Black Bass Diversity: Multidisciplinary Science for Conservation

Florida Bass Micropterus floridanus (LeSueur, 1822)

Brandon L. Barthel, Micheal S. Allen, Wesley F. Porak, and Janice Kerns

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781934874400.ch5

Bailey and Hubbs (1949) described the Florida Bass Micropterus salmoides floridanus and the Northern Largemouth Bass M. s. salmoides as two subspecies of Largemouth Bass M. salmoides based on meristic and morphometric evaluations. Subsequent work documented a number of additional phenotypic differences between the two taxa, including thermal preferences and tolerances (Fields et al. 1987; Koppelman et al. 1988), spawning period and duration (Isely et al. 1987), and vulnerability to angling (Zolcynski and Davies 1976; Botroff and Lembeck 1978). Kassler et al. (2002) investigated morphological and genetic relationships among the black basses and recommended that the Florida Largemouth Bass be elevated to a distinct species and be known as the Florida Bass M. floridanus. Among that study’s findings was that the magnitude of mitochondrial sequence divergence between the Florida Bass and Largemouth Bass (the taxon previously recognized as Northern Largemouth Bass) was three times greater than that detected between Smallmouth Bass M. dolomieu and Spotted Bass M. punctulatus (3.89% versus 1.20%; Kassler et al. 2002). More recent phylogenetic work has incorporated DNA sequence data from multiple genes in the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes and estimated that the taxa have diverged from a common ancestor more than 2 million years ago (2.84 ± 0.82 million years ago; Near et al. 2005). Throughout this book, the taxonomic recommendation of Kassler et al. (2002) is adopted with respect to the recognition of the Florida Bass as a separate species from Largemouth Bass. However, the editors of this volume note that the American Fisheries Society’s Names of Fishes Committee has not officially adopted this recommendation (Page et al. 2013) and continues to recognize this taxon as a subspecies of the Largemouth Bass, with the scientific designation of M. salmoides floridanus.