398 



Fishery Bulletin 91(3), 1993 



Larval development of agonids 

 is poorly known. Washington et 

 al. (1984) and Maeda and 

 Amaoka ( 1988) reported that for- 

 mation of most external body 

 parts, including dermal bony 

 plates and spines, begins early 

 in larval development. 



Development of the pygmy 

 poacher (0. trispinosa) is de- 

 scribed for the first time here. 

 Development of X. latifrons is 

 clarified based on new material. 

 A partial developmental series (7, 

 10, 16 mm SL) of X. latifrons was 

 previously described by Marliave 

 (1975). Washington et al. (1984) 

 included a single illustration of 

 X. latifrons (9.6mm SL) which 

 differed markedly in appearance 

 from those in Marliave (1975). 

 Matarese et al. (1989) combined 

 the illustrations from both 

 sources to create a complete de- 

 velopmental series. As a result, 

 some confusion exists as to which 

 illustrations in this series are ac- 

 tually those of X. latifrons lar- 

 vae. The following descriptions 

 are the first complete accounts 

 of larval development in the 

 family Agonidae. Characters are 

 presented that permit identifica- 

 tion of these larvae from field 

 collections. 



Methods 



Specimens 



Agonid larvae examined in this 

 study were obtained from collec- 

 tions made off the coasts of Baja 

 California, California, Oregon, 

 Washington (including Puget 

 Sound), Southeast Alaska, and 

 the inside passage waters of Brit- 

 ish Columbia, Canada (Fig. 1). 

 One hundred and thirty-six O. 

 trispinosa (4.3-56.0 mm SL) and 

 77 X. latifrons (4.8-79.0 mm SL) 

 were examined. The largest 

 specimens of each taxa were determined to be adults 

 and are not included in the descriptions. Larvae and 



56° 00N 



Odontopyx-i3 trispinosa 



Xeneretmi 



135°00'W 



131° 



127° 



115° 



123° 119° 



Figure 1 



Collection locations of Odontopyxis trispinosa and Xeneretmus latifrons larvae and early 

 juveniles used in this study. 



juveniles of both taxa were collected with dipnets, 60- 

 and 70-cm bongo nets, Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawls, 



