Dee and Parrish: Reproductive and trophic ecology of Myripnstis amaena 



519 



the gonad and GSI. The SFR, but not spawning sea- 

 son, was estimated quantitatively by using these 

 measures. Egg sizes were not measured, and fecun- 

 dity was not estimated. 



Results 



Feeding 



Guts from 64 specimens collected at JA at night con- 

 tained identifiable prey items (Table 2). Crab larvae 



dominated the diet, producing much larger IRI val- 

 ues than any other major systematic group (Table 

 3). Brachyuran megalops (mostly Portunidael were 

 found in over 90% of the analyzed guts. Despite their 

 relatively small size, they were important in volume 

 (28%) as well as numbers (38%). Hermit crab larvae 

 (Paguroidea) were present in over half the guts, and 

 alpheid shrimp in slightly less than half. Both these 

 groups provided significant fractions of all prey num- 

 bers and volume and had large IRI values; hermit 



