DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE HISTORY OF SOME TELEOSTS 575 
A COMPARISON OF THE EGGS AND YOUNG OF SOME AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN 
BLENNIES 
The eggs of the three species of blennies from North Carolina, forming the basis 
for the present report, all have an adhesive disk or foot by which they become firmly 
attached to objects in the water at the time they are laid, remaining attached through- 
out the period of incubation. The eggs of the European blennies, Blennius pholis, 
B. ocellaris, and B. gattorugine, all have similar organs of attachment (Lebour, 1927). 
In all these species, both American and European, the eggs are laid in a single layer. 
The adhesive organs generally, if not always, have a greater diameter than the eggs 
and keep them from touching each other. In another European blenny, B. montagui, 
the eggs are described (Guitel, 1893) as having a number of glutinous threads which 
attach them to the under side of stones. The eggs are said to press against each 
other, although presumably laid in a single layer. 
Such distantly related forms as Pholis gunnellus (Ehrenbaum, 1909), Anoplarchus 
purpurescens (Schultz and De Lacy, 1932) and Heterostichus rostratus (Barnhart, 
1932), formerly assigned to the family Blenniidae, but now referred to separate and 
distinct families, also have eggs which adhere. The adhesive organ, if any, for the 
first mentioned species are not described, it merely being stated that the eggs adhere in 
clusters. The egg of the third species has a number of adhesive threads like the one 
of Blennius galerita. The eggs of the two last-mentioned species, therefore, resemble 
those of the silversides (Menidia) in the structure of their adhesive organs. 
The eggs may be attached to mollusk shells, particularly to the inner surface of 
the valves of empty oyster shells, as in Hypsoblennius hentz, Chasmocles bosquianus, 
and Blennius ocellaris. Or they may be attached to rocks in crevices or to the under 
side of overhanging rocks, as in B. pholis, B. gattorugine, and B. galerita. Again, 
they may be laid in such places as the hollow of an ox bone or bottle, as in 
B. ocellaris, or in clusters loosely attached to stones, as in the distantly related 
Anoplarchus purpurescens of the Pacific coast. The eggs in one “nest”, if laid in a 
single layer, often cover several square inches of surface. The male was observed 
guarding the nest in most of the species studied by various investigators, as in II. 
hentz, C. bosquianus, B. pholis, B. ocellaris, B. sphinx, B. gattorugine, B. montagui, 
and Clinus argentus. Gudger (1927) reported that both sexes guard the eggs of Pholis 
gunnellus. Finally Shultz and De Lacy (1932) reported that the female guards the eggs 
of the Pacific coast blenny A. purpurescens. 
The eggs of the three species of blenny from North Carolina, constituting the 
subject of a part of this paper, are all slightly flattened at the place of attachment, as 
stated in the descriptions of the eggs in the text. The eggs of two European species, 
namely, Blennius pholis and B. gattorugine, are described as decidedly flattened, the 
egg of the first-mentioned species being a little more than three-fourths of a sphere, and 
that of the other one only slightly more than half a sphere. The eggs of another 
European species, B. ocellaris, having a smaller adhesive organ, is described as nearly 
spherical. 
It is pointed out in the text (pp. 579 and 592) that the eggs of two species of blennies 
from North Carolina have yolk containing brightly colored bodies. The eggs of 
Hypleurochilus geminatus have yolk with purple bodies, and those of Hypsoblennius 
hentz violet to old-rose colored ones when first spawned. The colored bodies gradu- 
ally lose their outline as development of the egg progresses, and the color becomes 
diffuse, generally disappearing before hatching. Bright colors in the yolk seem to 
be usual in the eggs of European blennies also. The egg of Blennius ocellaris, B. 
gattorugine, and B. pholis are all said to have pink, red, or purple yolk, though no 
