KENDALL: SERRANIDAE 



507 



5acMra. — Reared eggs and yolk-sac larvae were described by 

 Suzuki et al. ( 1 974) and a postflexion larva, illustrated and brief- 

 ly described by Fourmanoir(1976). shows characters of anthiine 

 larval development. The latter specimen has the third dorsal 

 and pelvic spines extremely elongate and with a pigmented 

 sheath; the opercular and interopercular are armed with stout 

 serrate spines, and there is a similar more ventrally-directed 

 spine anterior to these; the anal spines are stout and serrate; 

 there is a serrate ridge above the eye, and a midlateral pigment 

 dash on the caudal peduncle. 



Pronotogrammus-Hemanthias.— As presently understood, two 

 species assigned to each of these genera occur in the eastern 

 Pacific (P. COS. P. multifasciatus, H. signifer, and H. peruanus, 

 see Fitch ( 1 982)), and there are two Hemanthias and one Prono- 

 togrammus in the western Atlantic (H. leptus. H. vivanus, and 

 P. aiircoruhens). 



Kendall (1977, 1979) assigned larval types from both oceans 

 to these genera. More recently, Baldwin (pers. comm.) has es- 

 tablished alternate generic assignments for some of Kendall's 

 (1977, 1979) types based on more complete meristic data and 

 has assigned a previously undescribed type to Pronotogrammus 

 aureorubens. Thus, present generic assignments, do not coincide 

 with the larval types described by Kendall (1977, 1979). In the 

 following, the morphology of the larval types of Kendall (1977, 

 1979) will be summarized under the species whose larvae are 

 represented by these types. 



Hemanthias signifer, Hemanthias leptus (Kendall's Pronoto- 

 grammus eos and P. aureorubens) (see Fig. 2670. — These larvae 

 are characterized by serrate, spiny armature in the opercular 

 region, supraoccipital crest simple or absent, first spines of the 

 dorsal fin and the pelvic fin early developing but not becoming 

 elongate or serrate, and midlateral trunk pigment. 



Pronotogrammus eos. Hemanthias vivanus (Kendall's Heman- 

 thias peruanus and H. vivanus) (see Fig. 267e).— These larvae 

 develop a complex "cockscomb" ridge on the supraoccipital, a 

 serrate ridge above the eye, some serrate spines on the pre- 

 opercular and interopercular, some serrate fin spines (in all spiny 

 rayed fins in H. vivanus, only in the pelvic of P. eos), and spiny 

 scales. 



Pronotogrammus aureorubens (Fig. 267b). — Baldwin (pers. 

 comm.) has found larvae from the western Atlantic that are 

 heavily spined and possess the meristic characters of P. aureo- 

 rubens. These larvae are completely scaled, have serrations on 

 spines of all spinous fins which are also quite stout, and have 

 heavy serrate spines in the opercular region. The dorsal aspect 

 of the head is covered with spinous ridges including a complex 

 cockscomb spine on the supraoccipital. There are four blotches 

 of pigment dorsally on the body: two ventral to the first dorsal 

 fin, one ventral to the second dorsal fin, and one on the caudal 

 peduncle. 



Holanthias (Fig. 267rfA-Kendall (1977, 1979) illustrated and 

 briefly mentioned an anthiine larva he called .4nthias sp. Type 

 2 which has been shown to be Holanthias martinicensis (Bald- 



win, pers. comm.). These larvae are deep-bodied with large 

 heads and mouths. They develop serrate spines in the opercular 

 region, and a simple supraoccipital spine in post-flexion larvae. 

 They have several spines above the eye and develop scales dur- 

 ing the larval stage. They have some pigment in the membrane 

 of the first dorsal fin as well as a line on the body ventral to the 

 second dorsal fin. Baldwin (pers. comm.) has pointed out the 

 similarities between Holanthias martinicensis larvae and those 

 Kendall (1977, 1979) described as .4nthias gordensis, including 

 the early appearance of scales, not noted by Kendall (1977, 

 1979). 



Selenanlhias.—A transforming specimen illustrated and briefly 

 described by Fourmanoir (1973) is deep-bodied but has no elon- 

 gate fin spines. It appears to be fully scaled and has stout, pos- 

 sibly serrate preopercular and interopercular spines. 



Epinephelinae 



Johnson (1983) has dealt with the systematics of several gen- 

 era that had been thought variously related to each other. These 

 are mainly genera in the epinepheline-grammistine lineage of 

 Kendall (1976). On the basis of several characters, Johnson 

 proposed that these genera form a monophyletic lineage 

 (subfamily Epinephelinae) that is composed of five tribes (Ni- 

 phonini, Epinephelini, Diploprionini, Liopropomini, and 

 Grammistini). Some early life history stages are known for all 

 of the tribes except Niphonini (Fig. 268). The larvae share the 

 elongation of one or two anterior dorsal spines, and the larvae 

 and adults share predorsal bone and pterygiophore arrange- 

 ments which presumably function to support the larval dorsal 

 spines (Johnson, 1983). In the Epinephelini, the dorsal spines 

 are stout and serrate, whereas in the other three tribes they are 

 extremely elongate, flexible, and some have siphonophore-mim- 

 icking pigment and shape. 



The following is a summary of what is known of the mor- 

 phology of early life history stages of fishes in the epinepheline 

 tnbes of Johnson (1983). 



J^iphonini. — Niphon spinosus. the sole member of this tribe, has 

 unknown larvae but Johnson (1983) speculated that on the basis 

 of first dorsal pterygiophore morphology and presumed rela- 

 tionships, their third dorsal spine should be elongate. 



Epinephelini.— Larvae are known only for those genera occur- 

 ring in Atlanto-American waters. Several species have been 

 reared and their egg and larval development described (see Table 



123). 



Epinephelus. — Larvae of species from every ocean belonging to 

 this circumtropical genus are known. Smith (1971) placed the 

 American members of the genus in five subgenera: Epinephelus, 

 Promicrops, Cephalopholis, Dermatolepis. and .-ilphestes. These 

 had formerly been considered genera, and members of these 

 occur in other parts of the world. Johnson and Ashe ( 1 984) were 

 able to identify larvae of most species of American Epinephelus 

 primarily on the basis of spinelets on the elongate dorsal and 

 pelvic spines. They compared spinelet patterns among members 

 of the subgenera and species groups of Smith (1971) and found 



Fig. 268. Examples of epinepheline larvae: (A) Epinephelini: Paranthias furcifer. 8.6 mm. from Kendall ( 1 979); (B) Liopropomini: Liopropoma 

 sp., 1 1.0 mm. Collected by G. R. Harbison, 16 May 1981, b^Sl.S'S, 150°21.8'E; and (C) Grammistmi: Ryplicus sp., 6.6 mm, from Kendall (1979). 



