p6 PAPERS FROM TORTUGAS LABORATORY vol. xxxiv 



phase never seen in any other Nassau grouper. This distinctive phase appeared 

 five or six times and passed in perhaps a minute at each showing. The stripe 

 through the eye, instead of being one of the darkest, became one of the lightest 

 on the body, and the color on the side above the level of the pectoral was abruptly 

 replaced by white, in which were only a few scattered dark marks. 



Atlantic coast of tropical America, common in the West Indies and the Florida 

 Keys. W. H. L. 



Epinephelus morio (Cuvier and Valenciennes). Red grouper 



(Plate 4, figure 2; plate 5, figures 1, 2) 



By far the commonest of its genus, and the commonest representative of its 

 family, Hypoplectrus probably excepted, in shallow water at Tortugas. It is 

 strictly an individualist like its relatives, however, never schooling like the 

 Lutianidae and Haemulidae. The young are common where they can find shelter 

 under scattered pieces of dead coral on the Bird Key flats, and on rocky patches 

 in the Thalassia belt west of Loggerhead Key. The larger fish are found in some- 

 what deeper water, their distribution on the reef, too, being governed largely by 

 the occurrence of suitable cover. 



This species feeds indifferently by day or night, for individuals taken both by 

 day and by night contained recently captured prey. Other fish, octopuses, crus- 

 taceans, shrimps, small stomatopods, and crawfish are eaten. It almost always 

 appears hungry, hence is easily caught. Sometimes individuals will feed from a 

 diver's hand on first meeting him, and may later permit themselves to be touched 

 though nothing is offered them. 



In color it is one of the most changeable of fishes. In its most common phase, 

 except for a few inconspicuous light spots it is of a uniform dark reddish brown 

 above and lighter below. While in this plain phase it may lighten until it is pale 

 gray. It also has a very common banded pattern, shown in plate 4, figure 2, which 

 is subject to essentially the same variability in shade as the plain pattern. The 

 banded phase is associated with rest, and the shade in which it is developed is 

 correlated with that of the surroundings. The plain phase is less perfectly cor- 

 related with activity. 



Most red groupers resting on bottom variegated with light and shade, or with 

 patches of algae and gorgonians and bare sand or stone, are banded. Some, how- 

 ever, under these conditions, particularly if more or less completely withdrawn 

 under cover, are uniformly dark; but none are uniformly light. When the resting 

 fish starts up it almost immediately puts off the bands and usually assumes a 

 relatively dark self-color. Over bare bottom, however, it may be very pale, and 

 under certain conditions of illumination it may appear most unsubstantial. Only 

 rarely the banding lingers during swimming. The return to the resting phase is 

 usually prompt if the fish definitely settles to the bottom, but if it merely makes 

 a temporary halt, the plain color may persist. The fish may be gray, with the 

 ocular stripe almost the only mark shown. Two ocular stripes, in the banded 

 light phase, cross the mouth to the tip of the lower jaw, on which a white spot 

 separates them. Small individuals may show a greenish cast in turtle grass. 



