AHLSTROM: KIND AND ABUNDANCE OF FISH LARVAE 



Figure 17. — Distribution of larvae of the carangid, Naucrates ductor (open circle with dot), of the tetragonurid, 

 Tetragonuriis spp. (open square with dot), and of the trichiurids, Lepidopus sp. (open diamond with dot) and 

 Trichiurus lepturus (open triangle with dot) ; negative hauls are shovNTi as small solid circles. 



taken throughout the coverage on ETP I but at 

 a lesser proportion of the stations; in equivalent 

 coverage, 97 larvae were taken in 67 collections 

 on ETP I. Dolphin larvae provide one of the 

 more striking examples of a marked difference 

 in the distributional pattern of larvae as be- 

 tween ETP I and ETP II. 



Eggs and newly hatched larvae have been de- 

 scribed for Coryphaena hipjnirus L. by Mito 

 (1960). The eggs are 1.2 to 1.6 mm, with a 

 single oil globule 0.3 to 0.4 mm. The larvae are 

 heavily pigmented, even at hatching. We have 

 not found distinguishing characters to separate 



the larvae of C. hippurus from those of C. equi- 

 selis, hence have labelled our material as Cory- 

 phaena spp. After the vertebral column is devel- 

 oped, definitive identification can be made: C. 

 hippurus has 31 vertebrae, C. equiselis has 33 

 (Collette, Gibbs, and Clipper, 1969). Parin 

 (1968) reports that C. hippurus reproduces only 

 in the littoral zone and that C. equiselis is the 

 offshore spawner. If this pattern of spawning 

 holds for the eastern Pacific, then the majority 

 of larvae taken on EASTROPAC cruises were 

 those of C. equiselis. As noted for this family 

 in the first EASTROPAC paper (ETP I, 38) the 



1199 



