AHJ^fDANCE OF FISH LARVAE IN 1956 



In the preceding report in this series, a text table was included which 

 summarized the monthly abundance (standard haul totals) of fish larvae col- 

 lected in 1955 (Ahlstrom and Kramer 1957, text table 5, p. 36). A similar 

 table is included in this report as text table 2. The species covered in this 

 report, i.e., sardine, anchovy, jack mackerel, Pacific mackerel, hake, and rock- 

 fish, made up 68.36% of the larvae collected in 1956, and 72.09% of the larvae 

 collected in 1955. The remaining 28 to 32% consisted mostly of larvae of 

 pelagic fishes that have little or no commercial importance, but considerable 

 importance as forage species, and to a lesser extent of commercial species 

 that were present in moderate abundance only. In our enumerations, the "other 

 fish larvae" were placed in no fewer than 110 categories, some of which rep- 

 resented individual species, others were generic or even family groupings. 

 The five most common "other" larvae, four of which represent individual species, 

 were the following: 



Citharichthys spp. 

 LeuroQlossus stilbius 

 Lampanyctus leucopsarus 

 Lampanyctus mexicanus 

 Vinciquerria lucetia 



78.014 19.12 



Four species of Citharichthys are included under Citharichthys spp.: 

 C. fraqilis . C. sordidus . C. stiqmaeus . and C. xanthostiqma . Of these, only 

 C. sordidus is fished commercially and it is the least common of the four species 

 in our collections. Among the other flatfish larvae taken in 1956, arranged 

 in order of abundance, were Symphurus atricaudus . Pleuronichthys spp. (mostly 

 P. verticalis ). Lyopsetta exilis . Parophrys vetulus . Paralichthys californicus . 

 Microstomus pacif icus . Glyptocephalus zachirus . Hippoqlossina stomata . and 

 Bothus constellatus . 



The species included in this report keep the same rank as in 1955, with 

 anchovy larvae most abundant and the other species as shown below: 



1956 1955 



