ORANGE-SPOTTED SUNFISH, LEPOMIS HUMILIS. 



of growth during the ripening of the sexual products is merely 

 temporary, and increase in size of this species occurs at a rapid rate 

 directly following spawning. 



The orange-spotted sunfish hatched from early laid eggs may lay 

 its first eggs late in the second growth year in August. Its size, 

 however, at the egg-laying period ma}'^ be somewhat smaller than the 

 average mean length of fishes of its age, due probably to the fact that 

 the growth of the sexual organs to ripeness hasi prevented to 

 an appreciable ex- 

 tent the increase in 

 length and weight 

 that the fish would 

 otherwise have had. 



In this connec- 

 tion it may be men- 

 tioned that the ova- 

 ries of a ripe fe- 

 male 6.4 cm. in 

 length in the third 

 year of its growth, 

 captured June 18, 

 1921, weighed 0.6 

 g., or approxi- 

 mately one-tenth of 

 the total weight of 

 the fish, 6.1 g. This 

 observation may in- 

 dicate the demand 

 the sexual develop- 

 ment makes on the 

 growth of the fish. 

 Further in this con- 

 nection a scale of a 

 breeding female fish 

 in its second growth 

 year, 3.4 cm. in 

 length, taken at 

 Fairport on August 

 3 (Fig. 5), showed 

 an especially large 

 growth the first 

 year but a small one during the current growing season. The reduced 

 growth of the second growth year of the fish suggests that the sexual 

 development of the animal had been compensation for it. So again, 

 two ripe females 3 and 3.4 cm. long, respectively, taken at Mound on 

 August 29, support this opinion. They both showed in their scale ex- 

 amination ample growth for the first growing year, but the second or 

 current year's growth, as indicated by the increase in size of the scale 

 since the first annulus, was small. The fact that these youngest 

 breeding fishes were not encountered till the August collections of 

 either Louisiana or Iowa, even though many fishes in the second 

 growth year were examined from collections made in June and July, 

 further bears out the point that the breeding activity does not de- 



FiGt 4.— Growth of Lepomit^ Jiumilis as determined by scale 



examinations. , curve of growth of Louisiana 



fish ; , curve of growth of Iowa fish, x, average 



length for given months, Iowa fish ; o, average length for 

 given months, Jjouislana fish. The points x and o repre- 

 sent average lengths as indicated in Table 3. 



