DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE HISTORY OF SOME TELEOSTS 
519 
The pinfish is a nuisance in some respects to anglers because of its ability to cut 
the bait off the hook without itself getting caught, and to net fishermen because when 
“gilled” it is hard to remove. The sharp spines make the fish difficult to grasp without 
injury to the hands. Furthermore, a small sharp spine, directed forward, precedes 
the dorsal fin. This procumbent spine prevents the fish from being forced through 
the mesh (the usual procedure in removing gilled fish) without lifting the thread over 
the spine. The fish taken in this way generally are too small to be of much value. 
Therefore, fishermen often have to labor long at the disagreeable task of removing 
the fish from the nets without receiving anything in return. 
The pinfish also was a most annoying pest to an investigator who had confined 
crabs in floating wire cages for the purpose of studying their life histor} 7 . The fish 
continually mutilated the crabs by biting off their legs and other appendages. The 
fish could be observed readily while “working” around the float and when underneath 
it they swam completely upside-down, that is, with the ventral side upward. 
Figure ll. — Growth curve based on length measurements of 3,348 f.agodon rhomboides of the 0-class. Solid line, average length 
for each month of all fish measured; dot and dash (upper) line, largest fish; dot and several dashes (lower) line, smallest fish. 
CHARACTERS OF THE ADULT 
The pinfish ( Lagodon rhomboides ) belongs to the family Sparidae with the sheeps- 
head ( Archosargus probatocephalus), discussed elsewhere in this publication. 
The adult pinfish is most readily recognized by its rather deep, compressed body, 
crossed by four to seven dark bars, and by its prominent deeply notched incisor teeth. 
The depth of the body is quite variable among specimens, being contained 2.2 to 2.9 
times in the length to the base of the caudal. The head is rather long, and the snout 
is moderately pointed, being notably longer than the eye. The mouth is small and 
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