Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 



265 





Figure 63. Etrumeus sadina. a, larva, 27.5 mm TL, near Pensacola, Florida, b, young, 35 mm TL, near 

 Pensacola, Florida, c, young, 42.5 mm TL, Beaufort, North Carolina, USNM 143804. All drawn by Ann 

 S. Green; a and b based on camera-lucida sketches by W. W. Welsh. 



anal, and in a single dark median line behind the anal fin; also several dark spots are 

 present on the base of the caudal. 



At about 33-35 mm TL, the fins are all rather fully developed and the body 

 has become proportionately much deeper, but the pigmentation remains virtually the 

 same as in smaller examples. Specimens of this size, then, may be classed as young 

 adults. General pigmentation is delayed and is scarcely complete at i^i, mm TL. The 

 fish continue to increase in relative depth as long as they grow. 



Spawning. The smallest specimens at hand, postlarvae 25—28 mm TL, are so 

 young that they probably were caught not far from where they were hatched ; they were 

 taken at 30°29'N, 8o°37.5'W, off northern Florida. Still smaller larvae, 7.6-21 mm, 

 were listed by the late W. W. Welsh in his unpublished notes, accompanied by seven 

 camera-lucida sketches. These were taken by the Grampus at the surface in the Gulf 

 of Mexico at 28°2i'N, 89°o6'W, 17 miles or so off the Mississippi Delta. Although 

 these specimens are apparently no longer extant, the drawings leave no room for doubt 

 as to their identity. Also in this as well as other collections there are young adults from 

 northern Florida south to Cape Canaveral and from the Gulf of Mexico off Mobile 

 Bay. The smallest young (including postlarvae) were taken on January 25 (1940), and 



