3oS Papers from the Marine Biological Laboratory at Tortugas. 



sary is due to the nature of their food, which consists, so far as is known, of 

 invertebrates, most of them fixed. This is seen from their mode of feeding 

 by browsing from the surface of the coral rock or from hving corals. Tt is 

 further shown by the tooth structure of many of the forms, a structure 

 adapted for nibbling from hard surfaces and for crushing hard, fixed forms 



Table 15. Stomach contents, so far as recorded, of species of coral-reef fishes knozvn 

 to occur at the Tortugas, Florida.^ 



Species'examined. 



No. of 

 fish ex- 

 amined. 



Abudefdufmargina- j 

 tus (= saxatilis), 



Angelichthys (Ho- | 

 locanthus) ciliaris; 



Angelichthys (Ho- 

 locanthus) Isabel- | 

 lita. 



Balistes carolinensis 



Balistes vetula i 



ChEetodipterus faber ! i 



Chaetodon ocellatus 

 Hsemulon flavoHn- 



eatum. 

 Hsemulon macro- 



stomum. ' 



Haemulon sciurus... 

 Hepatus (Teulhis) 



cceruleus. 



Hepatus { Teuthis ) 



hepatus. 

 Holocentrus ascen- 



sionis. 

 Iridio bivittatUF 



Ocyurus chrysurus 

 (Bloch). 



Pomacanthus arcu- 

 atus. 



Pomacentrus fuscus 



Scarus (Callyodon) 

 veiula. 



Total 



16 



(?) 



35 

 4 



4 

 108 



Stomach contents. 



From Linton, 1907. 



Alimentary canal filled with 

 gorgonia, sponges, etc. 



Very long intestine filled 

 with material browsed 

 from the reef, mainly gor- 

 gonia and sponges. 



(2) Annelids . 



From Linton, 1907a. 



Vegetable debris. 



Alimentary canal filled with a red 

 sponge, a few annelids, bryozoa, 

 a small raollusk shell, and sea- 

 weed- 



Alimentary canal crowded with 

 broken mussel shells, setae of large 

 annelid. 



Fragments of adductor muscle of 

 a bivalve mollusk. 



Alga:. 



Crustaceans, annelids, green algs 



and broken shells 

 Annelids and ophiurians. 



Crustacea and annelids. 



Broken shells, mainly serpula tubes 



and small gasteropods, bryozoa, 



sponge, furaminifera, seaweed 



and sand. 

 Ascidian (Botrylloides^ alga;, and 



sand 

 Small crustaceans. 



Shells and byssus of mussel, anne- 

 lid, spine of sea urchin. 



From notes 



by writer and 



Dr. Linton, 1907. 



Small crustaceans, brj'ozoa, foramr- ! 

 nifera, algse, sand. I 



Stomach and intestine filled with 

 crabs, univalve shells, sea-urchin j 

 spines, seaweed, and sand 



I goose barna- 

 cle, 1 isopod, 

 many annelid 

 spines, Os- 

 tracoda, b i- 

 valve mol- 

 lusk s. 



Compound as- 

 cidians, red fi- 

 brous sponge, 

 fr agm en t s 

 gray calcare- 

 ous sponge, 

 green pycno- 

 gonid, red al- 

 gse, conical 

 bryozoan col- 

 onies. 



^ Additional notes on stomach contents of fish from Beaufort, North Carolina, of a few species 

 occurring at Tortugas {Kyphosus sectatri.v, Monocanthns hispidus, Chylomycterus schacpfi, Chcctodip- 

 terns faber) are to be found in Linton (1905). They are confirmatory of those given in this table, 

 but are not included because, although a reef occurs there, the region is not a typical coral-reef region. 



