88 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



The smallest, butterfish taken in the plankton measured 1.8 mm. A fish at this 

 length has lost the yolksac but has the larval fin fold entire. The pectorals are 

 faintly outlined, and a few rays of the caudal are discernable. A series of anastomosed 



Figure 7. — Peprilus alepidotus. From a specimen 62 mm. long. 



chromatophores lies along the dorsal region of the abdominal cavity. The ventral 

 edge of the abdominal cavity and the body is sharply bordered with a solid narrow 

 black line (fig. 8). 



The young possesses a deeper body at 3.7 mm. The fin fold is still entire, 

 although the rays of the caudal are becoming differentiated. The same arrangement 



Figure 8. — Poroiwtus triacauthtis. From a specimen 1.8 mm. long. 



of chromatophores exists as in smaller fish, but an additional series of markings are 

 now found along the ventral edge of the body from the gut to the caudal fin. Scat- 

 tered chromatophores may appear at random along the sides, although never abun- 

 dantly or in any definite arrangement as in young Peprilus (fig. 9). 



Succeeding stages of development have been described by Kuntz and Radcliffe. 6 

 (figs. 10 and 11). 



5 Perlmutter (1939) has also recognized the erroneous descriptions by Kuntz and Radcliffe (1918) and has given figures of young 

 butterfish 2.8 mm. and 3.6 mm. length. 



