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Fishery Bulletin 1 14(2) 
cape redfish (S. capensis) of the Southern Hemisphere 
(e.g., Westrheim et al. 1 ; Moser, 1967; Moser et al., 1977; 
Richardson and Laroche, 1979; Moser and Butler, 1987; 
Matarese et al., 1989; Sabates and Olivar, 1990; Moser, 
1996b; Rocha-Olivares et al., 2000). Larvae of another 
species, probably buccaneer rockfish (S. exsul) or spiny- 
eye rockfish (S. spinorbis), have been described through 
the postflexion stage (Moser et al., 1977). Early devel- 
opment of S. ensifer is known only from newly extruded 
larvae (Moser, 1967) and from large, transforming lar- 
vae (>19.8 mm standard length) and pelagic juveniles 
(Rocha-Olivares et al., 2000). The purpose of this ar- 
ticle is to describe external morphology and pigmenta- 
tion of larval S. ensifer from the early preflexion stage 
through the early postflexion stage, nearly the full 
developmental range not previously described in the 
literature and a range that encompasses most of the 
rockfish larvae routinely collected in standard plankton 
tows (e.g., Moser, 1996b). 
Materials and methods 
This study was based on plankton samples collected 
with a bongo sampler that was equipped with 0.505- 
mm mesh nets and a flowmeter and towed obliquely 
through the upper 212 m of the water column during 
the quarterly California Cooperative Oceanic Fish- 
eries Investigations (CalCOFI) survey in April 1999 
(Ambrose et al., 2001) and during the Baseline Cow- 
cod Conservation Area (CCA) survey in February 2002, 
both conducted in the Southern California Bight. De- 
tails of the CalCOFI sampling area, gear, and methods 
are available in the literature (Kramer et al., 1972; 
Ohman and Smith, 1995). Standard CalCOFI protocol 
was followed for collection of plankton in the CCA with 
the bongo sampler. A minor protocol revision, insti- 
tuted in 1997, was the preservation of the sample from 
the port net of the bongo sampler in 95% tris-buffered 
ethanol to facilitate aging and genetics studies of se- 
lected species. All fish larvae were sorted from the eth- 
anol-preserved samples, retained in 95% ethanol, and 
archived pending analysis. 
Eight ethanol-preserved larval specimens of the 
genus Sebastes (4. 1-8.4 mm, preflexion through early 
postflexion stage) from the CalCOFI survey were as- 
signed tentatively to a unique unidentified type on 
the basis of similarities in morphological features and 
pigmentation pattern. All specimens were relatively ro- 
bust; in specimens >6 mm long, there were large pari- 
etal and preopercular spines and melanophores on the 
lower jaw, on the margins of the pectoral fins, and on 
the ventral margin of the tail but they were absent on 
the upper jaw and snout and dorsally and laterally on 
1 Westrheim, S. J., W. R. Harling, D. Davenport, and M. S. 
Smith. 1968. Preliminary report on maturity, spawning 
season and larval identification of rockfishes (Sebastodes) 
collected off British Columbia in 1968, 28p. Fish. Res. 
Board Can., Manuscr. Rep. Ser. 1005. 
the trunk and tail. Before molecular analysis, all 8 lar- 
vae were examined with a Wild M5 Stereomicroscope 2 
(Wild Stereo Microscopes, now manufactured by Leica 
Microsystems Inc., Buffalo Grove, IL) equipped with an 
ocular micrometer, and the larvae best representative 
of a developmental sequence (Fig. 1) were drawn with 
the use of a camera lucida and the Wild microscope. 
Pigmentation patterns, counts of myomeres, head 
spines, and fin rays, and various measurements were 
recorded. These measurements, including body length 
(BL), preanal length, head length (HL), snout length, 
length of the pectoral-fin blade, eye diameter, and body 
depth, are defined in Moser (1996a). Descriptions of 
body proportions (e.g., “short preanal length”) follow 
those of Leis and Carson-Ewart (2000). Spines mea- 
sured include the preopercular (APOl-4 and PP02-4), 
parietal, nuchal, pterotic, postorbital, first lower infra- 
orbital, and posttemporal. Spine terms follow those of 
Moser and Ahlstrom (1978). Larval lengths refer to BL 
of ethanol-preserved larvae, and descriptions of pig- 
mentation refer to melanistic pigment. No adjustments 
were made in the measurements to account for shrink- 
age of the preserved larvae; larval fish shrinkage in 
ethanol, typically in the range of about 3-6%, has been 
reported in the literature (e.g., Theilacker, 1980; Porter 
et ah, 2001; Moku et al., 2004; Fey and Hare, 2005). 
All unidentified ethanol-preserved larvae of Se- 
bastes from the CalCOFI cruise, including the de- 
scriptive series, were identified by using mitochon- 
drial cytochrome b genomic DNA extracted from 
caudal-fin or muscle tissue as described by Taylor 
et al. (2004). Primers included GluRF and CB3RF 
(from Rocha-Olivares et al., 1999) and internal cus- 
tom primers (CB306F 5'-TTACTACGGCTCVTACCT-3, 
Cb521R 5'-GTTGCATTGTCTACTGAG-3' and CB364F, 
5'-CTAGTTATAATAACTGCTTT-3'). 
After molecular identifications of the Sebastes lar- 
vae from the CalCOFI survey were completed, iden- 
tifications of larvae from the CCA cruise began, and 
it soon became apparent that an appreciable fraction 
of those larvae were S. ensifer. We decided to include 
specimens from both surveys to base the description 
of larval development on a larger sample size: the 8 
CalCOFI larvae plus 41 larvae from the CCA survey 
were used for the full description, and another 36 lar- 
vae from the CCA survey supplemented the descrip- 
tion of larval pigmentation. During the interval be- 
tween completion of analysis of the CalCOFI sample 
set and the beginning of analysis of the CCA sample 
set, improvements were made to the chelex extraction 
and PCR protocols. Therefore, for larvae collected dur- 
ing the CCA survey, the revised protocols described by 
Hyde et al. (2005) were used to extract mitochondrial 
cytochrome b genomic DNA from an eyeball or caudal 
muscle tissue. Primers included GluRF2 5' AAC CAT 
CGT TGT TAT TCA ACT ACA AGA ACC and CB3RF2 
2 Mention of trades names or commercial companies is for 
identification purposes only and does not imply endorsement 
by the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
