FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



467 



This is a winter-spring spawner; females are full 

 of roe at Woods Hole in December and January, 

 and the collection of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology contains a female distended with eggs that 

 was taken on April 1 many years ago. Larvae 

 only 5.5 mm. long, which we towed near the Isles 

 of Shoals on July 22 and in Massachusetts Bay on 

 August 31 in 1912, must have been hatched from 

 eggs spawned at least as late as May, if not in June. 



The eggs, 63 about 1.5 mm. (0.06-inch) in diame- 

 ter, sink and stick together in bunches, to hydroids, 

 seaweeds, or other objects, like those of Neoliparis 

 atlanticus, and it seems that incubation is about as 

 long as it is with the latter, i. e., at least a month. 

 The larvae are about 5.5 mm. long at hatching 

 and they live adrift until they are upward of 16 

 mm. long, when the sucking disk is well developed. 



General range. — Arctic and North Temperate 

 Atlantic; north to the White Sea, Spitzbergen, 

 Greenland, Davis Strait, and northern Labrador, 

 and reported from the Kara Sea and from the 

 Arctic Ocean north of Siberia; south to northern 

 France and to Delaware Bay and Virginia. 64 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The distribu- 

 tion of this sea snail parallels that of the preceding 

 species in our Gulf. Thus it has been dredged not 

 uncommonly in the Bay of Fundy region in from 

 5 to 100 fathoms and has been recorded from 

 Grand Manan: from Eastport, as well as from 

 other localities on the Maine coast; here and there 

 about Massachusetts Bay; and on Georges Bank; 

 also at Woods Hole. 



In Nova Scotian waters it has been characterized 

 variously as "common" 66 and as "uncommon." u 



It has been described as "common" in the 

 southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence; 67 has 

 been reported in the estuary of the St. Lawrence 

 River; at Anticosti; and in the northeastern part 

 of the Gulf; also off the south coast of Newfound- 

 land; in Conception Bay; off the eastern end 

 of the Strait of Belle Isle; off the southeastern 

 Labrador coast, 68 and from Fort Chimo, on Ungava 

 Bay, in northern Labrador, 69 as well as from West 

 Greenland. 



It is of no commercial importance. 



THE SEA ROBINS OR GURNARDS AND THE ARMORED SEA ROBINS 



FAMILIES TRIGLIDAE AND PERISTEDIIDAE 



The sea robins and their European relatives, the 

 gurnards, suggest sculpins in their broad heads, 

 slender bodies, large fanlike pectoral fins, in 

 having two separate dorsal fins (a spiny and a 

 soft rayed), and in the location of their ventral 

 fins under the pectorals. But their entire heads 

 are armored with rough bony and spiny plates. 

 The Gulf of Maine is the northern limit for the 

 family on the Atlantic Coast of America. 



The armored sea robins are close relatives to 

 the sea robins but they differ from them in four 

 very noticeable ways: (1) the entire body is en- 

 closed in an armor of bony plates, each plate with 

 a spine; (2) it is only the two lower rays of the 

 pectorals that form separate feelers; (3) each side 

 of the front of the skull projects forward as a 

 long flat process, so that the snout appears to be 

 double; (4) they have 2 long barbels on the chin. 

 They live on bottom in fairly deep water, and 

 they are widespread in tropical to boreal seas. 

 One species is a member of the Gulf of Maine 

 fish fauna. 



« The following lines are condensed from Ehrenbaum's (Nordlsches Plank- 

 ton, vol. 1, 1905-1909, p. 112) account ofitseggs and larvae In European waters. 



KEY TO GULF OF MAINE SEA ROBINS 

 AND ARMORED SEA ROBINS 



1. Front of snout only slightly concave as seen from 



above; no barbels on chin 2 



Front of snout so deeply concave that it seems to be 

 double when seen from above (fig. 247) ; two long 

 barbels on chin Armored Sea Robin p. 471 



2. Pectoral fin with 2 broad dusky blotches; there is no 



prominent longitudinal stripe on the side of the 



body Common Sea Robin p. 467 



Pectoral fin with only 1 broad dusky blotch; there is 

 a prominent longitudinal dark brown stripe on each 

 side of the body Striped Sea Robin p. 470 



Common sea robin Prionotus carolinus 

 (Linnaeus) 1771 «° 



Sea robin; Robin, Green-Eye 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2156. 



M This sea snail, formerly known only as far south as New York, has been 

 taken off Delaware Bay by Albatross II, and off Assateague, Virginia, by the 

 Grampus (Welsh, Copeia, No. 18, 1915, p. 2). 



« Jones, Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Sci., vol. 5, pt. 1, 1882, p. 89. 



M Vladykov and McKenrie, Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Sci., vol. 19, 1935, 

 p. 99. 



» Cox, Contrib. Canadian Biol. (1918-1920) 1921, p. 112. 



w From the cruises of the Newfoundland Research Commission. 



" Packard Proc. Portland Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 2, No. 13, 1909, p. 112. 



"Jordan, Evermann, and Clark (Rept. U. S. Comm. Fish. (1928) Pt. 2, 

 1930, p. 407, place this species In the Genus Merultnus which was proposed 

 by Jordan and Evermann in 1898 as a subgenus. 



