FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 81, NO. 4. 



were two pairs of shoulder spines, the lower spine 

 having emerged close above the upper margin of the 

 pectoral fin. There was a single pair of small nasal 

 spines. The fins had all acquired the characteristic 

 adult shapes, including the high profile of the first 

 dorsal. The pelvics had acquired a single spine in 

 addition to the three rays; all other fins had the same 

 meristic characteristics as the preceding stage. 

 There were no longer any visible remnants of the 

 embryonic finfold. 



Descriptions of longhorn sculpin larvae from the 

 Gulf of Maine and Canadian waters (Khan 1971) 

 were somewhat different. Khan found that early lar- 

 vae had ventral pigmentation near the anus and 

 absorbed the oil globule prior to yolk-sac absorption, 

 whereas ventral pigmentation along the intestine was 

 absent and yolk-sac absorption was completed prior 

 to oil globule absorption among larvae reared in this 

 study. He found that anal and dorsal fins developed 

 consecutively, whereas in this study these fins 

 developed concomitantly. Finally, he found that 

 juvenile longhorn sculpins retained remnants of the 

 finfold at a larger size (ca. 15 mm) than occurred here 

 (ca. 13 mm). 



Development of eggs and larvae of M. octo- 

 decemspinosus was very similar to M. aenaeus, as de- 

 scribed by Lund and Marcy (1975). Grubbies reared 

 at mean temperatures between 4.6°-6.0°C under- 

 went the stages of fertilization, cleavage, cell mul- 

 tiplication, gastrulation, embryogenesis, hatching, 

 and larval development to the juvenile stage at rates 

 which differed very little from the longhorn sculpin 

 larvae of this experiment. Eggs of the two species 

 were distinguishable as grubby eggs had a mean 

 diameter of 1.58 mm and a transparent chorion 

 (Lund and Marcy 1975), while longhorn sculpin eggs 

 had a mean diameter of 2.19 mm and a translucent 

 chorion. The larvae of the two species can be dis- 

 tinguished by size, pigmentation, and meristics. 



Behavior of longhorn sculpins as observed in 

 aquaria underwent marked changes during develop- 

 ment. Immediately after hatching, the larvae swam 

 toward the surface, sometimes making random turns, 

 after which they sank to the bottom where they 

 remained quiescent for variable periods. The longest 

 observed continuous posthatch swim was almost 5 

 min, whereas other larvae swam for only a few 

 seconds before sinking. This resting behavior was 

 characteristic of prolarvae. Ennis (1970) reported 

 similar behavior of newly hatched M. scorpius larvae. 



Activity of the larvae increased considerably as 

 absorption of the yolk sac neared completion. The 

 larvae foraged actively near the surface. Postlarvae 

 did rest on the bottom intermittently, but did so to a 



788 



lesser extent than prolarvae. Lund and Marcy (1975) 

 described intermittent resting ofM. aenaeus postlar- 

 vae, particularly after a strike at prey. 



The assumption of benthic behavior was con- 

 sidered to signify metamorphosis from the larval 

 stage. After taking to the bottom, juvenile fish made 

 sudden darting movements in search of prey or when 

 disturbed, and they maintained this behavior 

 throughout the juvenile period when the adult 

 pigmentation was developing. 



LITERATURE CITED 



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1973. Fish larvae of the estuaries and coast of central 

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1970. Reproduction and associated behaviour in the short- 

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Galat, D. L. 



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1951. Studies on the marine resources of southern New 

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