HOBSON: CLEANING SYMBIOSIS 



trates, but this was not determined in this study 

 because observations in the kelp-canopy habitat 

 were infrequent. Nevertheless, observations 

 were sufficient to recognize the kelp perch as a 

 habitual cleaner. The only other fish seen clean- 

 ing was the white seaperch, Phanerodon fur- 

 cntu^, in which cleaning seemed to be only an 

 occasional incidental activity. 



METHODS 



During 1968 and 1969, I spent more than 103 

 hr underwater directly observing cleaning and 

 related activity in California inshore waters. 

 Also contributing to the study are many inci- 

 dental observations of cleaning made during 

 other work with California fishes between 1961 

 and 1970. 



Supplementing the observations, 421 speci- 

 mens of 39 species were collected with spear. 

 These represent most of the species common in 

 the study area that exceed a length of 100 mm 

 (all lengths of fishes in this report are standard 

 length). The ectoparasites were collected from 



all specimens and will be reported in detail else- 

 where in collaboration with R. F. Cressey, U.S. 

 National Museum. These collections also pro- 

 vided the material for descriptions of 1 1 species 

 of copepods formerly new to science (Cressey, 

 1969a, 1969b, 1970; J. Ho, California State Col- 

 lege, Long Beach, unpublished manuscript) . Ad- 

 ditional undescribed species may occur among 

 a number of copepods from these collections 

 presently under study by Z. Kabata, Biological 

 Station, Nanaimo, British Columbia. 



In addition to a survey of the ectoparasites, 

 gut contents of known cleaning species, including 

 material from .53 seiioritas, 29 sharpnose sea- 

 perch, and 3 kelp perch, were analyzed. 



Many ectoparasites leave their host when it 

 is in difficulty, and some fishes regurgitate their 

 stomach contents under stress. To reduce this 

 loss, all specimens were individually sealed in 

 plastic bags immediately upon capture, and while 

 still underwater. 



To acquire detailed data on the cleaning in- 

 teraction, a number of individuals of cleaning 

 species were kept under surveillance for periods 



Figure ',i. — Kelp perch next to giant kelp. 



493 



