166 FISHES OF SAN DIEGO—EIGENMANN. 
aa, Eye small, orbit 14 in snout, 44 in head; interorbital 13 in snout, convex or flat- 
tish; preopercular spine slender; supraocular slender, sometimes continued to the 
5] b] ’ 
postocular without spine; the four upper preopercular spines directed backward, the 
lowest one downward; preorpital crenulate, without spines; gill rakers short, less — 
than one-third of maxillary width, 8+21; membranes of first seven dorsal spines 
meeting the succeeding spine below the middle; the membranes much more deeply 
incised than in rubrovinctus. Head compressed, its width between upper angles of 
preopercles 24 to 3 in its length, which is about 2} in the length; depth; membranes 
of spinous dorsal naked; peritoneum white. 
Pink; axil and region above it dusky; four indistinct dusky vertical bars less than 
half as wide as. eye; one below first dorsal spine, one below the sixth, one 
between tenth and eleventh, and one below middle of soft dorsal; a few indis- 
tinct dark spots on upper part of opercular membrane ......-...-----.--- levis 
Sebastodes rubrovinctus Jordan & Gilbert. 
E. & E., 89; E. & E., ’89a. 
Most nearly related to S. levis. Not frequently brought into the mar- 
ket and never more than two seen on any one day. It is one of the 
rarer species and has not. previous to this year, been recorded from San 
Diego. It has proved an excellent object for determining the probable 
duration of gestation. From the individuals brought to my notice it 
would seem that the eggs are ripe in all individuals at nearly the same 
time. One individual of September 14 had ripe eggs which were free 
or only mechanically inclosed in the follicle. On September 16 the 
first developing eggs were observed, the gastrula covering about one- 
third of the yolk. No more individuals were seen till October 9, when 
there were two females, one of which had given birth to all its young, 
in the other the embryos were nearly ready to hatch. On October 11 
another female was observed with young of about the same size as those 
of October 9. The time required to hatch eggs of rubrovinctus is, there- 
fore, not far from a month. 
The ripe egg is spherical, about 0.9 millimeter in diameter, with one 
large and several smaller bright, greenish-yellow oil globules the 
largest measuring 0.32 millimeter in diameter. It is surrounded by a 
thin membrane. As the embryo nears hatching its tail is brought for- 
ward below and curled over the head. The ovum thus assumes a com- 
pressed ovate shape, the two larger diameters measuring 1 and 1.3 
millimeters, respectively. The eyes are slightly pigmented and there 
are afew minute pigment cells along the posterior intestinal tract. 
The tail is entirely free from pigment. The oil globules have united 
into one, which lies near the middle of the lower surface of the yolk. It 
was noticed that those eggs most nearly associated with the follicles 
were slightly further along in their development. 
The larvee are retained some time after hatching. An individual of — 
October 28 contained larve 5 millimeters long. The striking feature at 
this stage is the prolonged lower jaw, which resembles that of the adult 
Sebastodes paucispinis Ayres. A series of black pigment spots along 
the lower edge of the tail; a few pigment spots on dorsal surface of 
RO Vy owe CC ty A IR A Ne ge ee 
Set Se re S ees 
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prey? 
ALE 
