FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 69, NO. I 



the head, and 5 to 8 elongated anterior dorsal 

 rays. Larvae of the closely related genus, Cy- 

 clopsetta, also develop opercular and head spina- 

 tion. The opercular spination Is more pro- 

 nounced in Syachim — particularly an antlerlike 

 spine that develops on the posterior border of 

 the preoperculum. The three anterior rays of 

 the left pelvic fin become only moderately elon- 

 gated in Syacium larvae; the rays are of about 

 equal length, firmly joined together by a mem- 

 brane, and pigmented distally. The full com- 

 plement of dorsal and anal fin rays usually are 

 laid down before the larvae attain a standard 

 length of 10 mm; the largest specimens studied, 

 ca. 20 mm long, were undergoing metamor- 

 phosis. 



Citharichthys-Etropus (26 occurrences, 50 larvae) 



Before discussing problems in identification 

 of Citharichthys-Etropus larvae from the EAS- 

 TROPAC area, some background information 

 will be given on Citharichthys larvae in the Cal- 

 COFI region. Illustrations of larvae of three spe- 

 cies of Citharichthys were given in Ahlstrom 

 (1965). Two species, Citharichthys sordidus 

 (Girard) and C. xanthostigma Gilbert, develop 

 2 elongated dorsal rays and also 2 elongated vent- 

 ral rays on larvae larger than about 5 mm ; the 

 other species never develops such rays. Another 

 species that occurs off central and southern Baja 

 California, C. fragilis Gilbert, also develops 2 

 elongated rays on the dorsal and ventral fins. 



Two species of Citharichthys, C. gilberti 

 Jenkins and Evermann, and C. platophrys Gil- 

 bert, and the widely distributed Etropus cros- 

 sotus Jordan and Gilbert are known to occur in 

 the EASTROPAC area. Three kinds of larvae 

 were taken in EASTROPAC collections refer- 

 able to Citharichthys or Etropus. The most 

 common kind developed 3 elongated dorsal rays, 

 a less common form developed 2 elongated dorsal 

 rays, and some specimens lacked elongated rays. 

 The form with 3 elongated dorsal rays is almost 

 certainly referable to Citharichthys. Larvae of 

 a common Atlantic species, C. arctifrons Goode, 

 develop 3 elongated dorsal rays, confirming the 

 presence of this combination in Citharichthys 



larvae. A cleared and stained specimen from 

 station 13.040 with 3 elongated dorsal rays pos- 

 sessed 10 + 25 vertebrae, 78 dorsal rays, and 

 59 anal rays. The meristics of the dorsal and 

 anal fins could fit either C. platophrys or C. gil- 

 berti. Yet so little is known of C. platophrys 

 that I would hesitate to refer the common 

 Citharichthys larvae in EASTROPAC material 

 to this species. A similar problem attends 

 larvae of the form that lacks elongated dorsal 

 rays. Two specimens, 11.5 and 12.0 mm, from 

 station 14.014 each had 88 dorsal and 67 anal 

 rays; vertebrae counts were 10 + 23 and 10 

 + 24. These counts best fit E. crossotus, except 

 that the vertebral counts are low. No material 

 of the form with 2 dorsal rays (undoubtedly a 

 Citharichthys) has been cleared and stained for 

 precise meristics. A definite identification has 

 yet to be made on all three kinds of larvae. 



55. CYNOGLOSSIDAE 

 (63 occurrences, 304 larvae) 



Only one cynoglossid genus, Symphurus, oc- 

 curs in the eastern Pacific. Five or more kinds 

 of Symphurus larvae were obtained in EAS- 

 TROPAC collections; these were obtained in 

 more collections than larvae of bothid flatfishes 

 (63 as compared with 56) , and made up a larger 

 percentage of the total flatfish larvae (ca. 60 '^,'r ) . 

 A moderate number of recently transformed 

 specimens of Symphurus were obtained in 

 EASTROPAC collections; in contrast, all spe- 

 cimens of bothid flatfish were pretransformation 

 larvae. The distribution of Symphurus larvae 

 in EASTROPAC I is shown in Figure 13. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



I am indebted to a number of persons for as- 

 sistance during the preparation of this manu- 

 script. Kenneth Raymond prepared the distri- 

 bution charts. Amelia Gomes helped in many 

 facets of the work including the preparation of 

 cleared and stained specimens of flatfishes and 

 other groups. H. Geoff"rey Moser has worked 

 closely in studies of larvae of Myctophidae and 

 Gonostomatidae. W. L. Klawe has been help- 



42 



