FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 80, NO. 1 



see Sumida et al. 1979); autogenous, fused hy- 

 purals 2 and 3, articulating ventrally with the 

 urostyle and supporting four branched rays; 

 fused hypurals 4 and 5, fused with the tip of the 

 urostyle and supporting five branched rays; an 

 autogenous, proximally free element consisting 

 of hypural 6 fused anteriorly with the single 

 epural, one branched and three unbranched rays 

 supported by hypural 6; no evidence of a uro- 

 neural; an enlarged neural spine from the second 

 preural centrum supporting the epural. The cau- 

 dal skeletons of the four species described here 

 are similar to Amaoka's (1969) type 4, except for 

 the lack of a uroneural. 

 Dendritic splitting of hypurals 2+3 and 4+5 



occurs in Etropus crossotus by about 40 mm SL 

 (Fig. 3B). The hypurals of adult specimens of 

 Citharichthys spp. examined were sometimes 

 grooved but never split as in E. crossotus. Hypur- 

 als 2+3 and 4+5 of E. microstomas and E. rimosus 

 were similar to those of Citharichthys spp. except 

 for an apparent tendency to split slightly at the 

 distal margins. 



In C. comutus larvae all precaudal neural 

 spines stain with alizarin by about 4.8 mm NL. 

 Some caudal neural spines and hemal spines 

 stain with alizarin at 4.8 mm NL and all do by 6.1 

 mm NL. The urostyle stains with alizarin at 6.3 

 mm NL. All precaudal and caudal centra stain 

 with alizarin by 7.2 mm NL. The smallest speci- 



FlGURE 3.— Caudal skeletons of two 

 bothids: A. Citharichthys comutus, 51.5 

 mm SL; B. Etropus crossotus, 49.4 mm 

 SL. Abbreviations as in Fijrure 2. Scale - 

 1 mm. 



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