YOUNG OP SOME MAEINE FISHES IN LOWER CHESAPEAKE BAY, VA. 



87 



riorly. The body ckromatophores have disappeared and their place is taken by a 

 thick peppering of black dots over the sides. The tips of the elevated dorsal and 

 anal fins are heavily pigmented with black (fig. 7) . 



PORONOTUS TRIACANTHUS (Peck). Butterfish 



Distribution. — Young butterfish were taken abundantly in plankton from May 25 

 to Aug. 19, 1929, and from May 28 to Sept. 12, 1930. The young fish, similar to 



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fWWM 









Figure 5. — Peprilus alepidotus. From a specimen 7 mm. long. 



Peprilus, were generally found in association with the coelenterates, Dactylometra 

 and Cyanea. Butterfish 6 mm. long were secured from May 25 to July 23, indicating 

 a late spring and early summer spawning season. The young were taken at all 

 collecting points. 



Description. — The young butterfish ranged from 1.8 to 57 mm. in length. On 

 the basis of an extensive series of butterfish from Chesapeake Bay, the writer believes 



Figure 6.—Peprilus akpidotus. From a specimen 9 mm. long. 



the fish represented in figures 62, 63, 64, and 65 (Kuntz and Radcliffe 1918) are not 

 the young of the butterfish, Poronotus triacanthus, but most probably the young of a 

 hake, Urophycis. Several fish obtained in Chesapeake Bay in 1929 are herein de- 

 scribed as larval butterfish. Several figures of larger butterfish from Kuntz and 

 Radcliffe (1918) are reproduced to show the gradual transformation to the adult 

 shape. 



