Pelagic fish eggs from Japanese waters-VIII. Cottina

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Ichthyology Vol. 11; no. 3-6; pp. 65 - 79_10
• Main Author: MITO, Satoshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: The Ichthyological Society of Japan 1963
• ISSN: 0021-5090; 1884-7374
• DOI: 10.11369/jji1950.11.65

The present paper, the eighth of the series of the pelagic fish eggs from Japanese waters, contains the figures and descriptions of 21 species belonging to the suborder Cottina. The fishes of this suborder are oviparous or ovoviviparous, and oviparous members beget pelagic or demersal eggs. Japanese species, which spawn the pelagic eggs, are Sebastolobus macrochir (CÜNTHER), Pterois lunulata TEMMINCK et SCHLEGEL, Inimicus japonicus (CuvIER et VALENCIENNES), Hypodytes rubripinnis (TEMMINCK et SCHLEGEL), Scorpaenidae-type Nos. 1-9, Platycephalus indicus (LINNÉ), Cheridonichthys kumu (LESSON et GARNOT), Pachytrigla alata (HOUTTUYN), Lepidotrigla, japonica (BLEEKER), L. microptera GÜNTHER and Triglidae Nos. 1-3. Among the pelagic eggs of Cottina, as far as known, those of the family Scorpaenidae are agglutinated in one mass, and isolated in Synanceiidae, Congiopodidae, Platycephalidae and Triglidae. Both isolated and agglutinated eggs are globular in shape, 0.69-1.46 mm in diameter, the egg membrane is smooth, without any conspicuous structure, the yolk not segmented, the perivitelline space narrow. Most species possess a single oil globule in the egg, in some lacking it. In the course of the egg development melanophores and xanthophores appear on the em bryonal body, yolk, marginal fin and oil globule in many species, in some species lacking one or both pigment-cells of some part, rarely no pigment-cell at all. The oil globule of the newly hatched larva, if present, is situated in the posterior part of the yolk. The number of myotomes of the hatched larva is 26-35. Excepting P. indicus, the pectoral fins become conspicuously large in the larval development, usually covered with pigment-cells.