STEVENS ET AL.: LARVAE AND JUVENILES OF THREE KYPHOSID FISHES 



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1 SAN FRANCISCO 



OCCURRENCES 

 PER STATION 



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Girella nigricans 



Hermosilla azurea 

 Medialuna californiensis 



Figure 8. — Pooled numbers of occurrences ofGirella nigricans, Medialuna californiensis, and Hermosilla azurea larvae taken 

 in CalCOFI tows from 1951 to 1981. Occurrences for G. nigricans and M. californiensis represent oblique tows and those for H. 

 azurea are both oblique and surface tows. 



all the remaining larvae were taken between Pt. 

 Conception, CA and Pt. Eugenia, Baja Cali- 

 fornia; 28% of these occuiTences were off Cali- 

 fornia and the remainder were off Baja Cali- 

 fornia. 



In contrast to G. nigricans larvae, those of Af. 

 californiensis occur well offshore to a distance of 

 ca. 500 km (cruise 5505, station 93.95); 71% of 

 the occurrences were seaward of Station 40 

 (>110 km from the coast on most lines). Num- 

 bers of larvae ranged from 1 to 1 1 with a mean of 

 1.42 per positive tow, slightly higher than for G. 

 nigricans. The standardized mean number per 

 positive tow was 4.94 with a range of 1.0-30.7. 

 Like G. nigricans, the occurrence of M. cali- 

 forniensis larvae was highly seasonal with 53% 

 taken in July and 90% in June-August. Larvae 

 did not occur in November-March. 



Larvae of M. californiensis, like those of G. 

 nigricans, utilize the neuston habitat and may be 

 undersampled by oblique tows. Medialuna cali- 

 foryiiensis occurred only once in the oblique tows 

 during 1978 and once in 1981, whereas there 

 were five positive Manta tows in 1978 and three 

 in 1981. The mean size of larvae taken in surface 

 tows during 1978-81 was almost twice that in the 

 oblique tows (7.0 mm ± 2.60, range = 2.6-11.0 

 mm versus 3.9 mm ± 1.18, range = 2.3-9.4 mm). 



Hermosilla azurea 



Larvae of H. azurea have a nearshore shallow 

 distribution (Fig. 8). We can document only two 

 occurrences of this species in the entire CalCOFI 

 time series of oblique tows (cruise 6907, station 

 93.30, two specimens; station 97.29, four speci- 



765 



