FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 78, NO. 2 



The physiological or adaptive cause(s) of diel 

 spawning periodicity in fishes may become clear 

 as data on its occurrence accumulates or by exper- 

 iments. Effects of natural maximum solar radia- 

 tion at the sea surface on different development 

 stages of marine planktonic fish embryos should 

 be studied experimentally. Field studies on fish 

 embryo mortality at different times of day, and 

 studies on feeding patterns of major fish embryo 

 predators and adult fish predators during the 

 spawning season could help elucidate or eliminate 

 some of the factors suspected of causing diel 

 spawning periodicity. If correct, one of the implicit 

 consequences of the diurnal predation cycle 

 hypothesis is that diel spawning periodicity 

 should be more common in fishes with short em- 

 bryo incubation times (Figure 3), and this predic- 

 tion should be tested. Additional data on diel 

 spawning periodicity in fishes and studies such as 

 those listed above should ultimately provide im- 

 portant insights into fish physiology, reproductive 

 biology, and ecology. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



I thank Kathy Schweyer and William Medeiros 

 for assisting in the laboratory and field work, and 

 Frederick G. Roberts of the Marine Sciences Re- 

 search Center, State University of New York at 

 Stony Brook, for providing research vessels. I also 

 thank John L. McHugh, Marine Sciences Research 

 Center, State University of New York at Stony 

 Brook, and George Boehlert, Virginia Institute of 

 Marine Science, for reviewing an earlier draft of 

 the manuscript, and Fishery Bulletin reviewers 

 for their criticism of the manuscript. Special 

 thanks to George C. Williams, State University of 

 New York at Stony Brook, for reviewing the man- 

 uscript and for assistance and support throughout 

 the research. 



Research for this paper was financially sup- 

 ported in part by NOAA, Sea Grant Project 

 2-35281 to G. C. Williams, and by Grant-In-Aid 

 and University Awards from the State University 

 of New York at Stony Brook Research Foundation, 

 and 1977 and 1978 summer Biomedical Research 

 Grants to the author. 



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