Table 3. — The seaeonal dietributlon of ocellated flounder, Ancylopaetta 

 quadrocellata , larvae by size. Numbers are ad^Jueted to standardize earn- 



with the possible exception of the Gulf Stream flounder, 

 Citharichthys arctifrons, not in the bight. All of the soleid 

 larvae and most of the cynoglossid larvae in our collections 

 originated south of the survey area. 



I. Family Bothidae — Lefteye Flounders 



Ancylopsetta quadroceUata Gill, ocellated flounder.— 

 Ocellated flounder range from North Carolina to Florida and 

 into the Gulf of Mexico (Gutherz 1967). The larvae have not 

 been described. We based larval identifications on a combi- 

 nation of marginal fin ray and vertebral counts taken from 

 late-stage larvae collected on this survey and one that 

 followed in 1967-68 between North Carolina and Florida. 

 Characteristic pigment patterns allowed us to identify 

 specimens that lacked the adult numbers of meristic 

 elements. 



Because we sampled only the extreme northern end of the 

 ocellated flounder's range, larvae seldom appeared in our 

 collections. During the three cruises between October and 

 December, we caught 39 larvae (Table 3), aU at stations 

 south of Cape Hatteras. Most were caught off Cape Lookout 

 and may represent spawning that occurred south of the 

 survey area (Fig. 2). 



Bothus spp.— Our collections contain at least two species 

 olBothus larvae. Based on fin ray and vertebral counts from 

 x-ray photographs of 21 specimens > 12 mm, we identified 

 six B. oceUatus (Agassiz). The remaining 15 could not be 

 identified positively. Insufficient ossification prevented 

 identification of specimens <12 mm beyond the generic 

 level, so all the larvae are treated as Bothus spp. Kyle (1913) 

 described development of advanced larval stages of the 

 genus Bothus, but larvae of the different species have not 

 been described. 



Jutare (1962) concluded, from gonadal studies, that B. 

 oceUatus spawned almost year-round. Her larval collections 

 indicated a major spawning peak in July and a minor peak in 

 December. Larvae occurred year-round in our samples, 

 mostly in that part of the survey area in or near the Gulf 

 Stream off North Carolina. We noted peaks in their 



abundance in May and November, but, because of the 

 unknown distributional influences of the stream, we do not 

 know whether such peaks represent the time of actual 

 spawning peaks. 



We judge that larvae collected in February represented 

 the "begfinning" of spawning because of their small numbers 

 and limited size range (Table 4). We caught one larva near 

 the outer edge of the shelf between Cape Hatteras and 

 Chesapeake Bay, the rest between the North Carolina 

 capes. The catch in April increased slightly, both in 

 numbers and size range, but the distribution of larvae 

 remained limited to the outer half of the shelf between capes 

 Lookout and Hatteras, as it was in January. 



The distribution of larvae in May was unchanged from 

 that in April, but the catch increased sharply, owing largely 

 to a concentration of larvae between the capes (Fig. 3). If 

 the larvae caught thus far were transported into the survey 

 area by the Gulf Stream, the increased number of small 

 larvae caught in May suggests that spawning had moved 

 northward since the previous cruise in April (Table 4). 

 There was little change in either the distribution of larvae or 

 the center of larval abundance from May to June (Fig. 4). 



The catch dropped sharply by August (Table 4). The areal 

 extent of larval distribution remained much the same as 

 before, except that the young fish were closer to shore than 

 on previous cruises. An 11-mm larva caught at the most 

 seaward station off southern New England represented the 

 northernmost occurrence of the survey (Fig. 5). 



The catch increased in October, perhaps reflecting peak 

 spawning by one of the species represented in our collections 

 (Table 4). The pattern of distribution changed somewhat 

 from that of earUer cruises by extending northward along 

 the outer banks to Virginia. The center of abundance, 

 however, remained along the edge of the shelf between 

 capes Hatteras and Lookout (Fig. 6). 



We caught more larvae in November than in any other 

 month (Table 4). The distribution of larvae was similar to 

 results of cruises before September, when the young fish 

 were confined to that part of the survey area south of Cape 

 Hatteras. The major concentration occurred near the edge 

 of the shelf (Fig 7). 



