lomyns and Grant. Urophyas and Phyas larvae and pelagic juveniles 



U. floridana would not be found as far north as Cape 

 Henry. 



Methven (1985) presented a size-dependent key to 

 the identification of young U. chuss, U. tenuis, and P. 

 chesteri from the Northwest Atlantic. Identifications 

 were based on body depth, numbers of epibranchial 

 gill rakers (Musick 1973, Wenner 1983), and numbers 

 of caudal-fin rays. Material for Methven's study came 

 primarily from Canadian waters, and he did not en- 

 counter U. cirrata, U. earlli, U. floridana, or U. regia. 

 As a result, Methven's key is of limited use in more 

 southerly locations where these species occur. 



The objective of this paper is to describe additional 

 morphometric and meristic characters that aid in the 

 identification of Urophycis and Phycis larvae, and to 

 describe the spatial and temporal distribution of these 

 larvae collected 1975-77 off Virginia and New Jersey 

 in the Middle Atlantic Bight. 



Materials and methods 



Sampling locations and shipboard 

 procedures 



Sampling extended from October 1975 until August 

 1977 and was conducted quarterly at 12 stations off 

 Virginia and New Jersey (Fig. 1, Table 1). Neuston 

 samples were collected with a floating sampler devel- 

 oped at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 

 (Bartlett & Haedrich 1968, Craddock 1969). The net, 

 constructed with 505 (im mesh Nitex, was lm wide 

 and fished to a depth of 12 cm in calm seas. Tows 

 were of 20min duration at a ship speed of ~2kn. The 

 net was deployed from a boom and the towing course 

 followed a widely-circular track to prevent sampling 

 in the ship's wake. A single neuston tow was made at 

 3h intervals over a 24 h period at each station, re- 

 sulting in eight samples per station during each 

 cruise. Two oblique tows between nearsurface and bot- 

 tom were made at all stations with 60 cm opening- 

 closing bongo systems (McGowan & Brown 1966), the 

 first with paired 202 um Nitex nets and the second 

 with paired 505 tim nets. To prevent surface contami- 

 nation, all nets were closed during passage through 

 the surface layer (upper meter). Both bongo and neu- 

 ston nets were equipped with flowmeters (General 

 Oceanics, Inc.). The flowmeter attached to the under- 

 side of the neuston frame provided an estimate of 

 horizontal distance relative to sea surface fished by 

 the net. Estimates of volume filtered by the neuston 

 sampler were determined by multiplying distance 

 fished by net area fished (lmxl2cm). In calm seas 

 the neuston sampler consistently fished to a depth of 

 12 cm, but in rough seas the net opening would occa- 



Figure 1 



Icht.hyoplankton sampling locations off New Jersey and Virginia. 

 Stns. F2, Jl, A2, L4. and L6 are considered offshore stations. 



sionally be almost completely filled or empty (the 

 flowmeter was always submerged). This variability 

 decreased precision of neuston volume estimates but 

 was not expected to bias volume estimates. Compari- 

 sons between neuston and bongo collections were per- 

 formed only to emphasize the relative importance of 

 the surface layer to larval hakes. Patterns of the spa- 

 tial and temporal distribution of larvae were based 

 only on comparisons among neuston collections be- 

 cause most specimens were collected with this gear 

 type. 



Laboratory procedures 



Fish larvae were sorted from whole collections. All 

 specimens of Urophycis and Phycis were cleared and 

 stained (Dingerkus & Uhler 1977, Potthoff 1984, Tay- 



