It spread from the south-east United States to the middle and lower Ohio basin, the White drainage of the Ozarks and the Maumee system of Lake Erie.

On the slight chance of collecting this species the Alabama Department of Conservation and natural resources repeatedly sampled the lower reaches of Cypress Creek in 1992 and 1993.

[2] Because of the early extinction of the harelip sucker there are no detailed life history studies, but there is at least some biological information that was taken from the approximately 30 preserved specimens.

Very little information exists on its precise habitat and life history, though Klippart (1878) relates that these fish were called May suckers because they spawned in May.

[4] The only other thing known about the life history of this fish is that adult harelip sucker reached 18 inches in length and weighed several pounds.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there were no regulations on deforestation or cultivation, and this caused the habitat of the harelip sucker to become very silty.

This impeded their feeding because they fed by sight, but it also killed the mollusks and crustaceans which were the harelip sucker's primary prey, leading to starvation.