Sedberry and Cuellar: Planktonic and benthic feeding by Rhomboplites aurorubens 



703 



the diet of larger vermilion snapper (Table 2). Squids 

 and fishes were 76% of the prey volume for all vermil- 

 ion snapper, but 84.1% of the prey volume (and only 

 29.8% by number) offish greater than 150 mm SL. 



Vermilion snapper fed sparingly on invertebrates 

 closely associated with the reef habitat and collected 

 in suction and grab samples during the day (Table 3). 

 Electivity values were negative (usually -1.00) for all 

 dominant species in benthic samples. Polychaete spe- 

 cies that dominated those samples consisted mainly of 

 tube-reef building species iFilograna implexa) and spe- 

 cies associated with sponges and corals (Exogone dispar 

 and Syllis spongicola) (Gardiner, 1975; Wendt et al., 

 1985); none of these were consumed by vermilion snap- 

 per. On the other hand, many species that dominated 

 numerically in the diet (e.g., Oxyurostylis smithi and 

 Lucifer faxoni) were collected in benthic samples but 

 were not a major component of the daytime reef fauna. 



Because abundance of these species in benthic samples 

 was so low, electivity values were positive. Those spe- 

 cies that were higher in relative abundance in stom- 

 achs than in benthic samples (e.g., O. smithi) may 

 have been consumed in the water column during peri- 

 odic emergence. 



As in the case of benthic samples, most species of 

 cumaceans, mysids, stomatopods, and decapods that 

 dominated samples from the sled were not as rela- 

 tively abundant in stomach samples (Table 4). Most 

 electivity values were negative; however, fewer ab- 

 sences from stomach samples (£=-1.00) occurred with 

 the dominant species from sled samples than with the 

 benthic samples. The mysid Promysis atlantica at the 

 inner shelf (£=0.77) and the decapod Lucifer faxoni at 

 the middle shelf (£=0.63) were dominant species in 

 sled samples that were positively elected as prey. Lu- 

 cifer faxoni was by far the most abundant species in 



