WATSON ET AL.: TRACHINOIDEA 

 Table 137. Extended. 



559 



Champsodon. and the body spicules of the chiasmodontids (ex- 

 cept Kali) are distinctive. Trachinus vipera has precocious, en- 

 larged, and heavily pigmented pelvic fins. 



Relationships 



The trachinoid families summarized here are presumed to be 

 deinved from the Percoidei, or in some cases to belong them- 

 selves to the Percoidei (e.g., Trichodontidae, Champsodontidae, 

 Chiasmodontidae: Gosline, 1971). Therefore, in the following 



discussion we consider early life history characters shared with 

 the Percoidei as primitive. Characters shared with other Blen- 

 nioidei are, somewhat arbitrarily, considered to be derived. Our 

 purpose in classifying characters into these categories is not to 

 develop a new phytogeny of the Trachinoidea based on early 

 life history, since far too little in known to allow such an un- 

 dertaking, but rather to determine whether such characters sup- 

 port our treatment of the Trachinoidea as a monophyletic group. 

 Six of the 1 1 trachinoid families retain the pelagic spawning 



Table 1 39. Summary of Early Life History Characteristics of the Trachinoidea. The percoid condition is assumed to be primitive, while 

 the blennioid condition is assumed to be derived. The percoid condition includes spawning of pelagic eggs which soon hatch to poorly-differentiated 

 larvae, a moderately deep body, myomeres mid-to-upper twenties, development of dorsal and anal fin rays before pectoral and/or pelvic fin rays, 

 and five pelvic fin rays. The blennioid condition includes spawning of non-pelagic eggs with an extended incubation period and hatching of well 

 developed larvae having pigmented eyes, an elongate shape, myomeres thirty or more, development of pectoral and^'or pelvic fin rays before 

 dorsal and anal fin rays, and fewer than five pelvic fin rays. It should be understood that spawning mode, incubation period and development at 



hatching tend to be correlated, as are larval shape and number of myomeres. 



