Snowy Grouper Feeding 
125 
Yellowedge grouper (E. flavolimbatus) were sometimes caught 
with adult E. niveatus in deep water, but they represented only 
1.0% of our total grouper catch (52 of 5,142 grouper in 30 trips). 
The species is uncommon in South Carolina commercial landings 
(Low and Ulrich 1983) and in commercial landings off southeast 
Florida (B. Hardy, Jupiter, Florida, personal communication). Diets 
of yellowedge grouper and snowy grouper probably overlap to some 
extent. The senior author noted that one yellowedge grouper had 
eaten a squid (17 May 1985 in 152 m) and another had swallowed 
whole a 65-75-mm, bicolored reef fish, probably a serranid. A third 
grouper collected 24 June 1985 from 148 m contained 18 Portunus 
spinicarpus (20-50 mm CW; 62.5 mL total volume). Parrish (1987) 
reported a squid in the stomach of a yellowedge grouper from the 
Virgin Islands. In the Gulf of Mexico where the yellowedge grou- 
per is the dominant deep reef grouper, R. S. Jones (personal com- 
munication) saw them feeding on schooling anthiids and small reef 
fishes that were blinded by submersible lights. 
Warsaw grouper ( E . nigritus) were extremely rare in our study. 
In 20 months of fishing, the only Warsaw grouper caught (755 mm 
TL, 8.4 kg) was captured at 77 m southeast of Cape Lookout on 
17 July 1985 (much shallower than E. niveatus). This grouper had 
consumed two crabs whole: Calappa flammea (90 mm CW; 105 
mL total volume) and Glyptoxanthus erosus (Stimpson) (66 mm CW; 
100 mL volume). Both crabs have bathymetric ranges normally not 
extending beyond 70-90 m (Williams 1984). C. flammea has been 
reported as snowy grouper prey, but probably from a fish taken in 
waters shallower than covered in our study (South Carolina Wild- 
life Marine Resource Department and Duke University Marine 
Laboratory 1982). In addition, the stomach from a 226-cm (190 kg) 
state record Warsaw grouper was examined in September 1986. 
The stomach contained 13 Ovalipes stephensoni (70-80 mm CW). 
These crabs were swallowed whole and were in a similar state of 
digestion. 
Food overlap of snowy grouper was compared with that of 
three other commercially important fishes that partially occupy the 
same bathymetric range as adult E. niveatus and for which food 
studies have been conducted (Table 5). Comparisons were based on 
10 groups of invertebrates and 7 families of fishes. Red porgy 
contained 11 of the 17 categories, vermilion snapper contained 10 
(excluding categories from which only zoea and megalopa were re- 
ported), and blueline tilefish contained 10 categories. Clearly, there 
is some dietary overlap, particularly with E. naveatus and P. pagrus, 
but competition on the upper slope is restricted by depth. Few red 
