Table 1. Characters of the four subfamilies of scorpaenid fishes in the Eastern Pacific. Counts 

 listed are typical ones and occasionally encountered atypical counts are given in parentheses. 



•Last soft ray of doral and anal fins is a double ray and is counted as a single ray. 



found in pleinkton collections of the wide-ranging EAS- 

 TROPAC expeditions (Ahlstrom 1971, 1972) and in col- 

 lections from cruises of the Scripps Tuna Oceanography 

 Research (STOR) group (Blackburn et al. 1962). Pelagic 

 and benthic juveniles were obtained largely from ich- 

 thyological collections of the Scripps Institution of 

 Oceanography (SIO) and the Los Angeles County 

 Museum (LACM). Larvae and juveniles of Sebastes 

 marinus, S. viviparus, and Helicolenus dactylopterus 

 were obtained from the collections of the Dana Ex- 

 peditions at the University Zoological Museum, Copen- 

 hagen. A series of Sebastes fasciatus larvae from the 

 American coast between lat. 38°52'N and lat. 44°22'N 

 were supplied by the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 (NMFS) Laboratory at Narragansett, R.L, and a collec- 

 tion of intraovarian larvae from this species was ob- 

 tained from the NMFS Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass. 

 Methods of analyzing meristic and morphometric 

 development follow Moser (1967a, 1972, 1974), however 

 some of the terms used in this study require further ex- 

 planation. The larval stage of teleosts can be divided 

 naturally into three substages based on the state of 

 development of the caudal fin. The substage beginning 

 with the termination of the yolk-sac stage and ending 

 with the initiation of notochord flexion we call preflex- 

 ion. The substage from the initiation of notochord flexion 

 to its completion, when the posterior edge of the hypural 

 plate arrives at a vertical position, we term flexion. From 

 this substage to the initiation of transformation is termed 

 postflexion. These substages provide a practical means 

 of comparing larval development in different taxa. 



The change from larva to juvenile is termed transfor- 

 mation or transition. The juvenile stage may also be sub- 

 divided. Many scorpaenid species have a pelagic juvenile 

 substage that is marked by a distinctive pigment pat- 

 tern of bands and/or saddles and often by structural 

 features such as enlarged pectoral fins. When pelagic 

 juveniles become benthic juveniles there is usually an 

 abrupt change in pigment pattern and morphometry 

 (e.g., Sebastolobus altivelis). In species which remain 

 pelagic for much of their juvenile stage (e.g., Sebastes 

 jordani) there is no abrupt change in pigment or mor- 

 phometry. 



In discussing distribution and abundance we use the 

 term standardized number of larvae. This means the ab- 

 solute number of specimens per tow adjusted to the num- 

 ber under 10 m- of sea surface (Kramer et al 1972). 



SUMMARY OF LARVAL CHARACTERS OF 



SCORPAENIDAE WITH EMPHASIS 



ON THOSE IMPORTANT IN 



IDENTIFYING GENERA 



The most salient characteristic of scorpionfish larvae is 

 their elaborate head spination. Li addition to marked 

 development of spines on the preopercle, a feature shared 

 with many families, the larvae develop a pair of crestlike 

 parietal ridges that terminate in a single or double spine. 

 This parietal spination differentiates scorpaenid larvae 

 from those of most other teleost families. Larvae of the 

 Triglidae, a related family, also have parietal crests, but 



