White et al.: Reproductive seasonality, fecundity, and spawning frequency of Tautoga onitis 



437 



0,00E+00 



300 



350 400 450 



Total lengtfi (mm) 



500 



550 



Figure 8 



Linear relationship between mean annual fecundity (MAF) and body length in 50- 

 mm length classes for tautog. Sample sizes are noted above each data point. Error 

 bars indicate standard error of the mean. 



time-consuming histological methods. West (1990) noted 

 that there have been few attempts to assess the accuracy 

 of macroscopic gonad staging with histological analysis. 

 Most scientists attempting to assess reproductive stage of 

 female tautog will most likely use macroscopic criteria. 

 Given that all eight microscopic stages cannot be identi- 

 fied in a macroscopic context, a revised macroscopic gonad 

 staging was developed (Table 5) with validated agreement 

 against microscopic analysis. The validated stages (Table 5 ) 

 generally agree with previous studies of tautog reproduc- 

 tive biology (Chenoweth, 1963; Stolgitis, 1970; Hostetter 



and Munroe, 1993). However, even with this revised, sim- 

 plified staging criteria, we caution others that agreement 

 between the new criteria and microscopic staging is still 

 low for some ovarian stages, rendering this method less 

 reliable than microscopic analysis. 



Despite these limitations, macroscopic staging errors were 

 usually offby only one developmental stage (Table 2 ). Errors 

 in macroscopic staging were most likely due to the rapid de- 

 velopment of ovarian tissue required to sustain daily spawn- 

 ing events. The low percent agreement (SI** overall I between 

 macroscopic and microscopic classifications of tautog ovar- 



