436 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, VoL XVII, October 1963 
The food habits of the larger and smaller sar- 
dines appeared to be essentially similar, but 
fish larvae were found only in sardines 8.0 cm 
long or larger, and there seemed to be a size- 
associated difference in the composition of the 
copepod component of the diet. The smaller fish 
fed more commonly on small cyclopoid cope- 
pods, such as Corycaeus sp. and Oncaea sp., 
while the larger sardines had more often been 
10 
9 
8 
7 
6 - 
5 - 
4 
3 
2 
! : 
7 
6 . 
5 
4 
3 
2 
0 
13 
119581 
1959 
2- 
1 19601 
n 
W 
V 
. 1 . 
JAN. FEB. MAR. APR. MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC. 
Fig. 3. Size frequencies of sardines collected in 
Hawaii in 1958, 1959, and I960. 
feeding on larger calanoids, such as Candacia 
sp., Labidocera sp., and Pleuromamma sp. The 
samples were inadequate to carry on a detailed 
study of food habits among the different areas. 
As indicated in Table 2, 17% of the stomachs 
with food had fish larvae in them. Of 34 fish 
larvae found, 24 (71%) were identified as nehu. 
The largest number of larval nehu found in a 
stomach was 6, in a 10.8-cm specimen from 
Kihei, Maui. The largest nehu found measured 
3-3 cm, in a 9.4-cm sardine, also from Kihei, 
Maui. 
The food habits of H. vittata in its native 
environment were extensively studied by Naka- 
mura and Wilson (ms). They also found cope- 
pods to be the most frequently occurring or- 
ganism (79.1%), followed by pelecypods, gas- 
tropods, barnacle cypris, pteropods, amphipods, 
and megalops. Fish larvae occurred in only 1.6% 
of the stomachs. The only distinct difference 
between the feeding habits of the species in 
Hawaii and in the Marquesas seems to be the 
low percentage of occurrence of fish larvae in 
the Marquesan fish. 
The food habits of the sardine in Hawaii are 
similar to those of the nehu, both species feed- 
ing largely on the crustacean elements in the 
plankton. Hiatt (1951) found that nehu feed 
primarily on copepods* barnacle larvae, mysis 
larvae of shrimps, ghost shrimp ( Lucifer sp.), 
crab larvae, and palaemonid shrimps. 
SPAWNING 
The size of the first sardines taken at Maui 
and Kauai in 1958 was such that, as pointed out 
by Murphy (I960), it seemed more likely that 
they were the products of spawning in Hawaiian 
waters rather than members of the original 
transplanted stock. A collection of 29 sardines 
taken at Kihei, Maui, in October, 1958, con- 
tained 7 measuring less than 4.3 cm, which was 
the length of the smallest sardine measured in 
the release of May, 1958. Subsequently, sardines 
smaller than 4.3 cm were taken in Keehi Lagoon 
and Kaneohe Bay in July, September, October, 
November, and December, 1959 (Fig. 3). In 
I960, small sardines were caught at Keehi La- 
goon, Kaneohe Bay, and Haleiwa on Oahu, and 
at Port Allen, Kauai, in May, June, July, and 
September. 
