FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 507 



The youngest larval stages are identifiable as winter flounders, up to the time 

 the mouth is formed, by the pigment bar just mentioned; after the fin rays appear 

 the small mouth separates them from any of the large-mouthed flounders; the 

 short, deep body, combined with few fin rays, separate them from the witch; and 

 the number of rays mark them off from the dab (p. 495). The winter flounder 

 completes its metamorphosis at a smaller size than either of these other small- 

 mouthed flatfish (pp. 508 and 511). 



The rate of development of the larva? is governed by temperature, occupying 

 from about 2Jfj to about Zy 2 months, according to the data available, and the larvae 

 hatched later may catch up with the earlier ones before metamorphosis. Larvae 

 in their later stages have been taken in abundance in the tow nets at Woods Hole; 

 but their habits in aquaria suggest that they are less at the mercy of tide and current 

 than our other flatfishes, for they have been described as alternately swimming 

 upward and then sinking and lying for a time on bottom instead of remaining con- 

 stantly afloat and near the surface like the larva? of most other flatfish and of the 

 gadoids at a corresponding stage in development. 83 



Commercial importance. — Of late years this has come to be a very important 

 fish commercially, and it is the best flavored as well as the thickest and meatiest of 

 our smaller flatfish. Unfortunately we can not give the annual catch, all flounders 

 being lumped together in the returns, but probably at least half of the three million 

 and odd pounds of flatfish taken by the small-boat fishery of Massachusetts in 1908 

 were this species, and they form a majority of the catch along the Maine coast, 

 which amounted to nearly 500,000 pounds in 1919. Flounders are caught in 

 trawls, seines, and weirs. They are speared in great numbers on the flats in winter, 

 and flounder fishing with hand lines goes on in the estuaries all along the shores of the 

 Gulf. 



172. Georges Bank flounder (Pseudopleuronectes dignabilis Kendall) 



Lemon sole 



Description. — This flatfish was first brought to scientific attention in 1912 when 

 specimens were received by the Bureau of Fisheries. To all intents it is a magnified 

 winter flounder, averaging something over 20 inches long, with more fin rays (68 to 73 

 dorsal and 50 to 54 anal) , relatively shorter head, and as a rule is of a light yellowish 

 brown color washed with lemon yellow, more or less dark blotched and mottled, 

 and not of the dull reddish or slaty brown so characteristic of the winter flounder. 

 Kendall (1912, p. 391), in his description, to which we refer the reader for a full 

 account of the variable color of this fish, also mentions differences in the number of 

 gill rakers and in the number and arrangement of the teeth, but whether these 

 differences will prove constant or whether this species is merely a large brilliantly 

 colored race of the winter flounder can be decided only by a study of many specimens 

 of various sizes. 



" Three larvse taken in the Gulf in July, 1912, and provisionally identified by Welsh as this species, probably belonged 

 to some other flounder, for it is most unlikely that any winter flounders would be so small (only 6.5 mm. long) in midsummer. 



