FISHERY BULLETIN VOL 77, NO. 4 



Table l. — Catch data arranged chronologically for larval and juvenile Lutjanus campechanus from the Gulf of Mexico and adjacent 



waters. 



Atlantic coast of the United States and in the Gulf 

 of Mexico (Rivas 1966). The taxonomy of this 

 species has undergone several revisions. Three 

 specific names have been used for the Gulf of 

 Mexico red snapper in recent literature: L. cam- 

 pechanus, L. aya, and L. blackfordii (Anderson 

 1967). We used the American Fisheries Society 

 (Bailey et al. 1970) nomenclature. 



To date, the only lutjanid that has had its larval 

 stages described in the literature is Rhomboplites 

 aurorubens (Laroche 1977), Identification of lu- 

 tjanid larvae is difficult unless a series of the lar- 

 vae and juveniles is available for study. 



Juveniles of only three Atlantic species o{ Lu- 

 tjanus and one specimen of Symphysanodon have 

 been illustrated. Illustrations of 10,5, 14,4, 19.9, 

 and 48.5 mm juvenile L. griseus have been pre- 

 sented by Starck (1971). A 17.8 mmL. synagris or 

 L. mahogoni was described and partially sketched 

 by Heemstra (1974). A 14.4 mm fork length 

 juvenile identified as Lutjanus sp. was illustrated 

 by Fahay (1975). A 20 mm juvenile Symphysano- 

 don was partially illustrated in Fourmanoir 

 (1973). 



Identification of the present series of L. cam- 

 pechanus is based upon the meristic characters of 

 the juveniles. Six juveniles (8.0-22.4 mm) had the 

 meristic complement of adultL.campec/ra^iiis and 

 formed the key to the series. These counts included 



24 myomeres; X, 14 dorsal fin spines and rays; III, 

 9 anal fin spines and rays; 9+8 principal caudal 

 fin rays; 16-18 pectoral fin rays; I, 5 pelvic fin spine 

 and rays. These counts have also been reported for 

 L. analis andL. aya (Miller and Jorgenson 1973). 

 However, Anderson ( 1967) reported thatL. analis 

 has a maximum of 8 anal fin soft rays. Rivas (1966) 

 reviewed the L. campechanus complex of "red 

 snappers" and stated that the species described as 

 Bodianus aya by Bloch in 1790 was probably not a 

 lutjanid. Rivas recognized only two species in the 

 complex commonly referred to as red snappers: L. 

 campechanus, from the Gulf of Mexico and the 

 South Atlantic coast of the United States, and L. 

 purpureus, from the Caribbean Sea and south- 

 eastward along the coast of the Guianas, and 

 probably to Brazil. Rivas (1966) synonymized L. 

 blackfordii with L. campechanus . Therefore, L. 

 campechanus is the only species occurring in the 

 northern Gulf of Mexico which has the meristic 

 complements observed in our specimens. 



DESCRIPTION 



Although we collected many lutjanid larvae, 

 only those ^4.0 mm were identifiable as L. cam- 

 pechanus. Lutjanids <4.0 mm lacked presently 

 recognizable characters diagnostic at the species 

 level and, therefore, were not described. This gen- 



966 



