FISHES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY 
349 
in length contained 176,000 eggs, all of uniform size. Welsh and Breder, 26 working at Atlantic 
City, N. J., took ripe females from July 30 to August 27. The eggs are described as transparent, 
spherical, demersal, and adhesive. In diameter they vary from 0.85 to 0.91 millimeter. Incu- 
bation occupies about 3 days and 10 hours at an average temperature of 67° F. The newly hatched 
larvae are about 2.41 millimeters in length. By the time the young fish reach a length of 7.35 
millimeters they already have many of the characters of the adult. 
The two smallest puffers (each 1 inch in length) in the collection were seined on August 9 at 
Point Patience, lower Patuxent River. Sizes ranging from over 1 to nearly 4 inches are absent 
from our collection. In the fall large numbers of puffers from 4 to 10 inches long are caught in 
the lower parts of the bay, and these fish apparently are of various ages. One haul, made on 
October 2, consisted of 175 puffers, 117 to 163 millimeters (4J^ to 6J^ inches) long, the predominating 
lengths being 140 to 150 millimeters (5Jdj to 6 inches). 
This puffer is taken in the Chesapeake from April to November, being most abundant in the 
catches during the spawning season in May and again in September and October. It is caught 
chiefly with hook and line, pound nets, and haul seines. 
The species is said to attain a length of 14 inches but seldom exceeds 10 inches. It is quite 
abundant in the southern part of Chesapeake Bay, as well as elsewhere on the Atlantic coast from 
Cape Cod, Mass., southward, but it has no commercial value. 
Habitat. — Portland, Me., to Florida; the only species of puffer abundant outside of the Tropics. 
Chesapeake localities.— -(a) Previous records: St. Marys River and St. Georges Island, Md., 
and Cape Charles city, Va. (6) Specimens in collection: From many localities from Love Point, 
Md., southward to the capes. 
197. Tetraodon testudineus Linnteus. Puffer; Swellfish. 
Tetraodon testudineus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. X, 1758, p. 332. Type locality missing. 
Chilichthys testudineus Lugger, 1877, p. 59. 
Sptieroides testudineus Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 1734, PI. CCLXV, figs. 646 and 646a. 
Head 2.4 to 2.8; depth 3.15 to 4; D. 7 or 8; A. 6 or 7. Body robust; head rather broad; snout 
moderately long, 2 to 2.8 in head; eye 3.85 to 6.1; interorbital 4.6 to 8, more or less concave; skin 
with small prickles on back and somewhat larger ones on chest and abdomen; snout and tail smooth; 
no cirri; lateral line evident; dorsal and anal fins similar, the anal, however, somewhat smaller, its 
origin under posterior part of dorsal; caudal fin slightly convex; pectoral fins short and broad, 
2 to 2.5 in head. 
Color of back dark brown, broken on sides and becoming lighter; sides with black spots; the 
back and sides with narrow light lines forming reticulations; belly pale; caudal fin sometimes duskj^; 
other fins pale greenish. 
No specimens of this puffer were secured. The foregoing description is based on published 
accounts. The species is included because of a record by Lugger dating back to 1877. It has not 
been seen in the Chesapeake by other collectors. This fish is readily distinguished from its relative, 
T. maculatus, by the presence of light lines, forming reticulations on the back and sides, which 
T. maculatus does not possess. 
This fish reaches a maximum length of about 10 inches. It has no commercial value. 
Habitat. — Woods Hole, Mass., to Natal, Brazil; very common in the West Indies and on the 
Atlantic coast of Panama; very rare in the northern part of its range. 
Chesapeake localities . — (a) Previous record: “A single fine specimen was obtained in the south- 
ern part of the Chesapeake Bay” (Lugger, 1877). (6) Specimens in collection: None; evidently 
extremely rare in Chesapeake Bay. 
Family XCI. — DIODONTIML The porcupine fishes 
Body short, depressed above; belly moderately inflatable; mouth moderate; terminal; jaws 
with continuous bony plates, having no median suture; nostril usually with a short tube with 
two lateral openings; gill-openings consisting of more orless vertical slits,. placed in front of pectorals; 
body almost everywhere with bony spines; dorsal and anal fins similar, placed posteriorly and 
mostly opposite each other; caudal fin round; ventral fins wanting; pectoral fins short and broad. 
For a detailed account of the embryology and larval development of this puffer see Welsh and Breder, Zoologica, Vol .II, 
No. 12, 1922, pp. 261 to 276, figs. 80 to 96. New York. 
