Comyns and Grant Urophycis and Phycis larvae and pelagic juveniles 



215 



60 



>50 



c 



!40 



30 



» CO 



— 



2 o cm en a o 



d d cnm i ' ipi □ 



mm cm ODD O CD □ rm OO a 



n en en a a cd □ a 



a a a a a 3 a q 



Urec 



N=I0I 



U ChuSS • N = I88 



9 10 II 12 



Standard Length (mm) 



13 



14 



16 



Figure 2 



Development of second dorsal-fin pterygiophore number in Urophycis chuss and U. regia. 



tions when numbers of second dorsal-fin pterygiophores 

 were not yet taxonomically useful. 



Numbers of abdominal vertebrae may help sepa- 

 rate U. earlli from U. floridana and U. cirrata, the 

 other two southern species of Urophycis. Over 80% of 

 U. floridana and U. cirrata possessed 16 or 17 ab- 

 dominal vertebrae, but U. earlli has never been re- 

 corded with this many. 



Anal-fin pterygiophores (Table 3) The number of 

 anal-fin pterygiophores positioned anterior to the first 

 haemal spine helps distinguish P. chesteri, U. cirrata, 

 and U. tenuis from U. earlli, U. floridana, U. regia, and 

 U. chuss. Only one specimen of 

 U. tenuis <n=65) and no U. 

 cirrata (re=ll) or P. chesteri 

 (?? =70) were found with >7 anal- 

 fin pterygiophores positioned an- 

 terior to the first haemal spine, 

 but 45% of 



U. chuss (n=350) and over half 

 of U. earlli (rc=27), U. floridana 

 (rc=42), and U. regia («=380) had 

 at least 7 of these pterygiophores. 

 More than 60% of U. tenuis, 

 U. cirrata, and P. chesteri had <6 

 anterior anal-fin pterygiophores, 

 whereas <2% of U. regia and no 

 U. earlli or U. floridana had this 

 few. 



Second dorsal-fin 



pterygiophores (Table 3) The 

 interneural space into which 

 points the first pterygiophore of 

 the second dorsal fin helped 



separate U. chuss from U. regia, and 

 U. floridana from U. earlli. In over 

 half of U. chuss examined (n=431) 

 the first pterygiophore of the sec- 

 ond dorsal fin pointed into the 9th 

 or 10th interneural space, whereas 

 in all U. regia examined (?? = 182) 

 this pterygiophore pointed into the 

 7th or 8th interneural space. In 

 >75% of U. regia this pterygiophore 

 pointed into the 7th interneural 

 space, whereas <1% of U. chuss 

 showed this pattern. 



In >70% of U. floridana exam- 

 ined (n=42) the first pterygiophore 

 of the second dorsal fin pointed 

 into the 9th or 10th interneural 

 space, whereas in all juvenile and 

 adult U. earlli examined («=27) 

 this pterygiophore pointed into the 

 7th or 8th interneural space. In 

 over half of U. earlli examined, the first 

 pterygiophore of the second dorsal fin pointed into 

 the 7th interneural space, but in only 2% of U. 

 floridana did this pterygiophore project this far for- 

 ward. 



Morphometries 



Body depth at anus (Fig. 3) Body depth at the 

 anus separated some species of hake larvae at sizes 

 >12-13mm. Extremes of body depth as percent of 

 standard length for cleared and stained P. chesteri, 

 U. tenuis, and U. chuss were 21.0-23.4, 19.0-21.1, 



