their occurrence and extensive size range during early 

 spring cruises suggest that spawning may occur sporadically 

 throughout the year. Richardson and Joseph (1973) reached 

 the same conclusion after examining ovaries of adult Gulf 

 Stream flounder. 



We caught larvae throughout the survey area during the 

 spawning season, largely along the outer half of the shelf, 

 i.e., at depths where the adults seem to be most abundant 

 (Fig. 15). Although the distributional patterns of summer 

 and fall catches showed no apparent influence of coastal 

 circulation, the lack of larvae > 12 mm off southern New 

 England suggests transport from there southward. 



Cyclopietta ftmbriata {Goode and Bean), spotfin flounder. 

 —This warm-water bothid ranges from North Carolina to 

 the Gulf of Mexico and along the Caribbean coasts of Central 

 and South America. Spawning takes place off the west coast 

 of Florida in late spring (Topp and Hoff 1972), but Gutherz 

 (1971), who described the larvae, reported a longer 

 spawning season off our southeast Atlantic coast. His data 

 indicate that spawning begins in April, peaks in June and 

 again in September, and continues to October. 



The southern end of our survey area and the northern end 

 of the spotfin flounder's range overlapped between capes 

 Lookout and Hatteras. Although the number of larvae in 

 our collections is small (Table 6), the seasonality of their 

 occurrence agrees closely with that of Gutherz (1971). We 

 caught larvae from April to December, mostly at stations on 

 the seaward half of the shelf where depths exceeded 25 m 

 (Fig. 16). Most of these larvae probably originated south of 

 the survey area and were subsequently transported north 

 by the Gulf Stream. 



Etropus microstomus (Gill), smallmouth flounder.— 

 Smallmouth flounder range from New England to Florida 

 (Parr 1931) and into the Gulf of Mexico (Gutherz 1967). 

 Gutherz reported their northern limit as North Carolina, but 

 these small bothid flounders are common in the Middle 

 Atlantic Bight. The larvae are described by Richardson and 

 Joseph (1973). 



Spawning might occur throughout the year south of the 

 survey area, because we caught larvae the year-round in the 

 southern part of the survey area. In the bight, however, 

 spawning probably did not beg^ until June, after which it 

 peaked during summer and early fall. Richardson and 

 Joseph (1973) reported similar results from a series of 

 monthly collections made off Chesapeake Bay. 



We considered larvae collected in April between capes 

 Lookout and Hatteras to represent the onset of the 1966 

 spawning season. Judging from their size and numbers, we 

 assumed they originated somewhere south of Cape Lookout 

 and were transported into the survey area (Table 7). The 

 distribution, sizes, and numbers of larvae collected in May 

 resembled those of April. 



The distribution of larvae in June extended northward to 

 Maryland. Although a center of abundance was not evident, 

 most larvae, and most recently hatched larvae, occurred 

 over depths of 15 to 35 m between the eastern shore of 

 Virgfinia and Cape Hatteras over bottom temperatures of 

 13° to 17°C. Most of the larvae collected in June were <4 

 mm and presumably represented recent spawning (Table 7). 

 The northward progression of spring spawning was 

 apparent within the June collections, when larvae <4 mm 

 occurred farther north than those >4 mm. The seaward 

 movement of water off North Carolina would account for the 



Figure 15.— Distribution and relative abundance of Gulf 

 Stream flounder, Citharicktky$ arct^ront, larvae collected 

 during 1965-66 survey. 



16 



