the waters around the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico 

 (Randall 1964). 



Most of the unidentified filefish resemble M. 

 hispidus, but at small sizes we were unable to deter- 

 mine the nature of scale spination, an important iden- 

 tifying character (Berry and Vogele 1961). Because of 

 overlapping meristic characters and relative body 

 depths in the four species of Monacanthus, these 

 specimens were not identified. 



Most specimens of Balistes capriscus were heavily 

 infested with parasitic copepods {Caligus sp.) at- 

 tached to the bases of the vertical fins. No other 

 balistid species was so affected. 



OSTRACnDAE 



Unidentified 

 D-67-4 May 

 CC-5, 1, 7.9 



D-67-16 Oct 

 PP-3. 1, 8.9 



D-68-1 Jan-Feb 

 MM-4, 1, 6.6 

 PP-3, 1, 9.7 



There are few records of small ostraciids in the lit- 

 erature. Fowler (1945) mentioned three specimens, 

 one of 20 mm from Key West, one of 23 mm from New 

 Jersey, and one of 21 mm from Massachusetts. The 

 latter two records indicate that the Gulf Stream oc- 

 casionally carries developing young to the north. 

 Because postlarval ostraciids resemble the bladders of 

 sargassum in size, shape, and color, more specimens 

 may have been captured and overlooked during our 

 survey. 



TETRAODONTIDAE 



Sphoeroides sp. 



D-67-4 May 

 AA-1, 5, 10.1-11.3 

 AA-2, 10, 7.4-13.0 

 AA-3, 10, 9.3-18.8 

 AA-4, 4, 6.7-11.6 

 AA-5, 5, 7.4-13.8 

 AA-6, 1, 8.9 

 CC-1, 3, 11.0-15.9 

 CC-3, 1, 15.9 

 CC-4, 5, 8.7-10.3 

 CC-5, 12, 6.1-19.9 

 CC-6, 4, 8.6-15.5 

 CC-7, 3, 5.4-9.0 

 DD-3, 1, 10.9 

 EE-6, 6, 5.7-14.9 

 FF-2, 3, 11.3-17.9 

 FF-3, 8, 7.0-12.0 

 FF-4, 5, 5.7-17.9 

 FF-5, 2, 10.9-12.2 

 HH-2, 2, 14.7-15.1 

 HH-4, 2, 13.5-14.3 

 HH-5, 8, 13.2-16.5 

 HH-6, 3, 13.0-15.7 

 JJ-2, 13, 11.1-18.2 

 JJ-3, 55, 8.3-14.6 

 JJ-4, 15, 8.8-16.5 

 KK-3, 1, 15.0 



KK-6, 1, 16.5 

 LL-2, 2, 7.1-12.1 

 LL-3, 2, 11.9-12.9 

 LL-4, 3, 10.3-13.9 

 LL-5, 2, 13.0-16.6 

 MM-1, 1. 8.9 

 MM-2, 1, 8.3 

 NN-1, 1, 12.5 

 NN-3, 8. 5.9-8.8 

 NN-4, 4, 9.9-12.0 

 PP-1, 2, 6.2-10.0 

 PP-2, 1, 11.0 



D-67-8 Jul-Aug 

 AA-4, 1, 6.4 

 BB-4, 1, 10.4 

 EE-5, 2, 8.9-10.7 

 FF-4, 2, 8.5-10.5 

 FF-5, 1, 11.8 

 GG-5, 1, 10.6 

 HH-5, 2, 7.3-7.4 

 JJ-5, 1, 13.3 

 LL-4, 4, 7.7-10.5 

 MM-3, 1, 9.0 

 NN-4, 1, 6.6 



D-67-16 Oct 

 AA-4, 3, 17.0-20.6 

 AA-5, 5, 12.4-18.8 

 DD-4, 1, 15.2 



DD-5, 15. 8.6-18.2 

 FF-,3, 1, 18.9 

 FF-5, 5, 14.8-21.4 

 GG-5, 2, 10.0-18.2 

 HH-3, 2, 9.4-9.6 

 J.J-3, 1, 9.6 

 J.J-4, 1, 13.4 

 JJ-5, 1, 14.5 

 KK-1, 1, 15.9 

 LL-4, 1, 9.4 

 LL-5, 3, 9.6-16.4 

 NN-1, 1. 14.1 

 NN-2, 3, 7.7-12.3 

 NN-3, 2, 10.6-11.4 



NN-4, 4, 6.8-12.5 

 D-68-1 Jan-Feb 

 AA-5, 2, 8.1-14.9 

 AA-7, 3, 8.5-9.5 

 DD-5, 1, 10.0 

 DD-6, 2, 13.2-13.3 

 FF-5, 1, 6.7 

 GG-5, 2, 6.9-8.0 

 KK-4, 2, 12.5-13.0 

 MM-1, 1, 14.4 

 MM-2, 1, 16.5 

 MM-3, 8, 12.0-16.0 

 PP-2, 4, 8.8-13.3 

 PP-3, 1, 7,5 



Of all fish species caught, small puffers were the 

 most markedly diurnal in occurrence (Table 9). It 

 appears that these fishes engage in a diel vertical 

 migration, but the extent of the nocturnal descent is 

 unknown. 



Table 9. — Diel variations in catch of juvenile tetraodontids. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



The author thanks Peter L. Berrien, Arthur W. 

 Kendall, Jr., John D. Sibunka, and W. G. Smith for 

 their participation in the cruises; Cindy deGorgue for 

 her assistance in sorting, identifying, counting, and 

 measuring; Catherine Noonan for typing the list of 

 fishes; Alyce Wells and Cindy deGorgue for preparing 

 some of the figures; and Lionel A. Walford for careful- 

 ly reviewing the manuscript and offering suggestions 

 for its improvement. 



35 



