10 
Fishery Bulletin 110(1) 
A Cephalopholus B Cephalopholis fulva C Epinephelus guttatus 
Figure 3 
Quotients of larval grouper (proportion of larvae divided by proportion of collections) and total 
number of collections within 9.25-km bins across the Straits of Florida transect. Quotient plots 
for members of the eastern Straits of Florida larval fish assemblage by species (A-G). Graysby 
(Cephalopholis cruentata) is divided into (F) preflexion and (G) flexion or postflexion larvae. 
Quotient plots for members of the western Straits of Florida larval fish assemblage (H-K) and 
for a species collected evenly across the transect (L). The solid line represents the quotient of 
larval occurrence, and the dashed lines are the upper and lower confidence intervals for the 
null hypothesis (i.e., even distribution across the transect). The x-axis spans the length of the 
transect from west to east. The bars represent the number of samples collected in 9.25-km bins. 
Only months in which the species occurred (Table 4) were included in analyses. 
1). The largest Mycteroperca spp. specimens, identified 
by anal-fin ray counts >10 (Smith, 1971), were collected 
in the northern Gulf of Mexico only during April-June 
and primarily on the TX-LA shelf (Fig. 4F; Table 1). 
In addition, two larger Mycteroperca spp. larvae were 
collected in January and February off the Yucatan 
Peninsula in the southern Gulf of Mexico. 
Like the Mycteroperca spp., members of two multi- 
species groups (larvae with small spinelets, and those 
with long, curved spinelets) were collected in April- 
June and September-November in all three identified 
Gulf of Mexico spawning subregions (Fig. 4, B-C). 
Specimens of the group of species with standard tail 
pigment and long and curved spinelets collected in 
