HOUDE: DEVELOPMENTAL ABNORMALITIES OF Jchirus lineatus 



Table 1. — Abnormalities of AchUiis lineatus reared in the laboratory. 

 A plus symbol indicates the presence of the abnormality and a minus 

 s\Tnbol indicates its absence. 



Specimen 

 number 



Total 

 length 



Pigment on 

 bfind side 



Body 



Lef» 

 pectoral 



Hooked 

 dorsal 



fir> 



Left eye 

 migration 



* This specimen had a small albinistic area on the right side of its head. 



ABNORMALITIES 



PIGMENTATION 



Among the many abnormally pigmented speci- 

 mens (Table 1) four major categories could be 

 distinguished. Three were types of ambicolora- 

 tion and the fourth was partial albinihm: (1) 

 Nineteen specimens were completely pigmented 

 on both sides (Figures 2 and 3). (2) Two speci- 

 mens were completely pigmented except for the 

 mouth region on the left (blind) side (Figure 5) . 

 (3) Four specimens were completely or almost 

 completely pigmented on the body of the blind 

 side but not on the head, which had little (10% ) 

 or no pigment (Figure 6). (4) One specimen 

 was partially albinistic on the right side of the 

 head, but other pigmentation was normal. The 



eye completely failed to migrate in this speci- 

 men (Figure 7). Normal coloration (five speci- 

 mens) consisted of a lack of pigment on the blind 

 side, except for tiny melanophores scattered over 

 the posterior third of the body (Figure 1). All 

 except two ambicolored individuals had some 

 other associated abnormality, but normally pig- 

 mented specimens were always normal in other 

 respects. 



LEFT PECTORAL FIN 



The left pectoral fin disappeared from normal 

 lined soles when metamorphosis was nearly com- 

 plete (Houde et al., 1970). A fin with 1 to 6 

 rays remained on 23 of the 31 juveniles from 

 the rearing experiment. All specimens with a 

 left pectoral fin also were abnormally pigmented. 



539 



