FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 81. NO. 3 



Sexual Maturity 



Maturity of females, defined as the size at which 

 >509< of the individuals were gonadogenically ac- 

 tive, occurred between 425 and 450 mm TL (Table 3) 

 which is typically a 4- or 5-yr-old fish (Ross and 

 Huntsman 1982). One of three age III females (387- 

 421 mmTL),509? of the age IV (n = 8; 427-506 mm 

 TL),739< oftheageV(n= 15; 430-546 mm TL), and 

 100' > of the age VI+ females were mature. The pat- 

 tern of ovarian development corroborated the mac- 

 roscopic maturity analysis. Relative gonad weight 

 increased with total length after initial steep in- 

 creases in relative gonad size between 400 and 500 

 mm TL. Mean GSI and maximum relative gonad 

 weights were consistently greater for females cap- 



Table 3.— Percentage of sexually mature female and male 

 Caulolatilus microps from North Carolina and South 

 Carolina. 



tured off South Carolina than those captured off 

 North Carolina, although the biological reason for 

 this is unknown. 



Male C. microps show little gross testicular develop- 

 ment under 500 mm TL (Table 3). Macroscopically, 

 507c were considered immature between 500 and 

 525 mm TL and 1009? attained maturity above 600 

 mm TL. No age IV (n = 4; 436-453 mm TL) and only 

 12.59? of the age V males (n = 8; 485-574 mm TL) 

 were considered mature, and a majority (62.59( ) had 

 not matured until age VI (n = 8; 520-556 mm TL). 

 The initial and most pronounced increase in relative 

 testis size occurred in males >500 mm off North Car- 

 olina and males >600 mm off South Carolina. His- 

 tological examination of testes from males 390-500 

 mm TL (n = 11) revealed spermatogenesis and 

 collections of spermatozoa in fish macroscopically 

 considered immature. These testes were very small 

 (<0.08 f 7< body weight) and maroon in color. We could 

 not determine whether this represented precocious 

 development or functional maturity. 



Sex Ratio and Sexual Transition 



Males outnumbered females in the combined North 

 Carolina and South Carolina collections (195 to 176), 

 but this was not significantly different from a 1 : 1 ratio 

 (X : — 0.97). However, sex ratios become skewed 

 when size (Table 4) or age (Table 5) are considered. 

 Females were more numerous between 300 and 500 

 mm TL, and in several cases there were significant 

 deviations from 1:1. Between 500 and 600 mm TL 



TABLE 4. — Frequency of male and female Caulolatilus microps from North and 

 South Carolina within 25 and 100 mm TL intervals, with Chi-square values 

 assuming a 1:1 sex ratio. 



*P< 0.05 



562 



