Type A), S. capensis{?), Scorpaenodes xyris, Scorpaena 

 guttata, Scorpaena Type A, Pontinus Type A, Pontinus 

 Type B, and Ectreposebastes imus. 



For each genus there is a summary of the literature and 

 a section in which the distinguishing features of the lar- 

 vae and early juveniles are summarized and compared 

 with related genera. Our format for the species descrip- 

 tions consists of a literature summary, a section entitled 

 distinguishing features which contains the body of the 

 description, and a description on distribution. Where 

 there was adequate material, new descriptions are given 

 in more detail than are those which have appeared in the 

 literature previously. Morphometric tables and illus- 

 trations of developmental stages are included for all 

 species. Meristic tables were prepared for only eight of 

 the series: Sebastes paucispinis, S. macdonaldi, S. jor- 

 dani, Sebastolobus altivelis, S. alascanus, Scorpaenodes 

 xyris, Pontinus Type A, and Pontinus Type B. For the 

 others, there were either too few specimens to sacrifice 

 for staining or most of the specimens were leached of cal- 

 cium and would not stain. Where there is no meristic 

 table, data on fin counts are given in the distinguishing 

 features section. 



Sebastes Cuvier 



Literature. — Larvae of the genus Sebastes are the 

 best known of all scorpaenid genera although descrip- 

 tions of only a few species have been published. Plank- 

 tonic larval stages of the North Atlantic redfish, Sebastes 

 marinus, were first described and illustrated by Collett 

 (1880). This was followed by other descriptions and il- 

 lustrations of intraovarian stages (Ryder 1886; William- 

 son 1911; Goodchild 1924; Liiling 1951; Templeman and 

 Sandeman 1959) and planktonic stages (Dannevig 1919; 

 Jensen 1922; Bigelow and Welsh 1925; Einarsson 1960; 

 Taning 1961) of that species. The taxonomy of North At- 

 lantic Sebastes has long been in a state of confusion and 

 it is likely that some of the early larval descriptions are 

 referable to species other than S. marinus. Templeman 

 and Sandeman (1959) reviewed these papers and at- 

 tempted to correct the mistakes of the earlier workers. In 

 the papers by Einarsson (1960) and Taning (1961), the 

 larvae of the smaller North Atlantic species, Sebastes 

 viviparus, were described, illustrated, and compared 

 with those of S. marinus. 



Eigenmann (1892) was the first to describe the in- 

 traovarian larvae of a species of Sebastes from the North 

 Pacific, S. rubrivinctus, and this was followed by de- 

 scriptions and illustrations of intraovarian larvae of other 

 northeastern Pacific species (Wales 1952; Morris 1956; 

 DeLacy et al. 1964; Ahlstrom 1965; Moser 1967a, 1972; 

 Waldron 1968; Efremenko and Lisovenko 1970; 

 Westrheim 1975). Complete planktonic larval series of 

 only 2 of the 65 northeastern Pacific species of Sebastes, 

 S. paucispinis and S. macdonaldi, have been described 

 and illustrated (Moser 1967a, 1972). 



Larvae of the less speciose sebastine fauna off Japan 

 have been described by a number of investigators. Fujita 



(1957, 1958) raised two species, S. pachycephalus nig- 

 ricans and S. oblongus, in aquaria up to the stage of fin 

 formation. Shiokawa and Tsukahara (1961) raised S. 

 pachycephalus pachycephalus from egg to juvenile, the 

 only time that a species of Sebastes has been raised 

 through transformation. Planktonic larval series of two 

 other Japanese species, S. hubbsi and S. inermis, have 

 been described by Uchida et al. (1958) and Harada 

 (1962), respectively. Takai and Fukunaga (1971) describ- 

 ed the larval development of S. longispinis, and recently 

 Sasaki (1974) has described preextrusion larvae of S. 

 schlegeli, S. steindachneri, and S. taczanowskii. 



Distinguishing features. — Despite the large species 

 complement and resulting variety in larval form and pig- 

 mentation, there is a group of characters that allow 

 Sebastes larvae to be distinguished from those of the 

 other eastern Pacific genera. 



In the earliest stages of larval development, there is a 

 marked dichotomy in size between Sebastes and the 

 other genera. At birth, Sebastes larvae are 3.8 to 7.5 mm 

 long, have utilized all or most of their yolk, and have 

 well-developed eyes and jaws. Where it is known, em- 

 bryonic development of the other eastern Pacific genera 

 occurs in floating egg masses and, at hatching, the lar- 

 vae are 2.0 to 3.0 mm long, have large elliptical yolk sacs, 

 poorly developed eyes and jaws, and a voluminous fin- 

 fold that has an inflated appearance. Development is 

 more advanced in relation to body length in these genera 

 compared with Sebastes. For example, the size at initia- 

 tion of notochord flexion ranges from 6.2 to 8.5 mm 

 (mean of 7.5 ± 0.72 SD) for 10 species of Sebastes studied 

 and at completion of flexion ranges from 7.0 to 11.8 mm 

 (mean of 9.5 ± 1.39). Comparative sizes for the other 

 genera are 4.0 to 6.0 mm (mean of 4.8 ± 0.97) at initia- 

 tion of flexion and 4.5 to 7.9 mm (mean of 6.1 ± 1.32) at 

 completion of flexion. 



The extent and pattern of melanistic pigmentation is 

 useful in distinguishing Sebastes larvae from those of 

 other eastern Pacific genera. Intraovarian embryos 

 develop a shield of melanophores over the dorsolateral 

 surface of the gut and a series of melanophores along the 

 ventral midline of the tail. Almost half of the known 

 species also develop a series of melanophores along the 

 dorsal midline of the tail before hatching. Melanophores 

 may be added to the tail series after hatching, but the 

 length, anteroposterior position, and number of constit- 

 uent melanophores of these rows are usually stabilized 

 at the completion of yolk absorption (Table 5). This com- 

 bination of characters may be diagnostic for a particular 

 species but, usually, species identification requires sup- 

 plementary characters such as the pattern of melano- 

 phores on the pectoral fins and the presence or absence 

 of melanophores on the lower jaw, brain lobes, and 

 nape. 



Larvae of Sebastolobus can be separated from 

 Sebastes on the basis of the tail pigment described 

 above. Early Sebastolobus larvae have two large 

 melanistic blotches midway along the tail, which disap- 



