Food of Aholehole — Tester and Trefz 
7 
TABLE 2 
Crustacean Food in the Stomachs of Small 
Aholehole from Salt Water, Showing 
Frequency of Occurrence and 
Percentage by Bulk 
CRUSTACEA 
NUMBER OF 
OCCURRENCES 
PER CENT OF 
TOTAL FOOD 
Copepods 
70 
22.3 
Amphipods 
27 
10.0 
Isopods. 
18 
4.0 
Crab 2 oea and megalops. 
15 
2.6 
Shrimp zoea 
3 
0.3 
Ostracods 
11 
0.2 
Mysids 
3 
0.1 
Barnacle nauplii 
1 
0.1 
Unidentified remains. . . . 
19 
8.5 
Wai Canal (with rock walls) nor in that from 
Kuhio Beach (a sandy shore) . They were par- 
ticularly abundant in the sample from Wai- 
mea, occurring in nine of the ten stomachs 
and comprising 61.0 per cent of the total 
contents. In a letter to Dr. Hardy, Dr. Wirth 
states: "Since approximately a fourth of the 
hundred or so specimens were females, I 
would not be surprised if the fish were feeding 
on the midges in the beds of algae where they 
breed. Since the females are wingless they can 
only crawl around the breeding places, al- 
though some are transported by the males 
during copulation." This insect, one of the 
few that breeds in salt water, thus forms an 
important item in the diet of the small 
aholehole. 
Ants, mostly small adults, occurred often 
in small aholehole from tide pools and rocky 
shores. They were particularly abundant in 
one sample from Diamond Head (No. 8) 
where they occurred in seven of the ten stom- 
achs and formed 31.5 per cent of the total 
contents. The ants, which are very common 
along all shores, doubtless were blown or fell 
into the water where they were eaten. Some 
of the winged forms, such as wasps, beetles, 
etc., may have been taken when they were 
flying low over the surface or when they 
accidentally landed on the surface. Although 
most of the whole insects found in the stom- 
achs were of very small size, a few large legs 
and wings from unidentified species indicated 
that the aholehole would also tackle larger 
forms, nibbling at them until they were 
consumed. 
Molluscs (9.4 per cent) occurred in 22 of 
the 81 stomachs. They consisted of pelecypod 
and gastropod veligers and postveligers. There 
was an unusual abundance of pelecypod vel- 
igers in the sample from Ala Wai Canal in 
which they occurred in all five specimens and 
formed 63 per cent of the total contents. 
Foraminifera (7.5 per cent) occurred in 29 
of the 81 stomachs. They were particularly 
abundant in the Kualoa sample, occurring in 
nine of the ten stomachs and forming 49-9 
per cent of the contents for this one locality. 
Algae (4.9 per cent) occurred in 25 of the 
81 stomachs. They consisted of the red and 
green thallus and branched forms common 
to tide pools and also included diatoms and 
other one-celled species (of minor impor- 
tance). The low percentage of algae is in 
marked contrast to the high percentage which 
occurred in the stomachs of small aholehole 
from fresh- water streams. 
Annelids (polychaete worms) occurred in 
only three stomachs. Other items included 
fish eggs found in two stomachs. 
Medium {39-138 mm.) and Large 
{132-204 mm.) Fish from Salt Water 
Medium-size fish (samples 15 and 16) and 
large-size fish (samples 17 to 22) are grouped 
as the food was similar and both came from 
similar habitats — localities exposed to the surf 
of the open sea where the water is of high 
chlorinity (19 p.p.m.). 
It will be noted from Table 1 that there is 
less variation in the type of dominant food 
organism in the samples of this group than 
in those of the small fish from salt water. 
Crustacea were most abundant in seven and 
annelids in one of the eight samples. Com- 
pared with the food of the small salt-water 
fish, there was a marked increase in the per- 
