none |
eel-like |
compressed |
none |
tube-like |
|
|
no spines |
no spines |
ventral + lateral row |
tail completely covered with melanophores |
melanophores on head + trunk |
ventral + lateral row |
tail partly covered with melanophores |
melanophores on head + trunk |
pigmented |
unpigmented |
with row of melanophores |
normal without melanophores |
normal (i.e. small or absent) without melanophores |
Diagnostic characters: leptocephalus; dorsal and anal fin overlap or nearly so; midlateral pigment; depressed head; forked tail; long gut; at transformation, body shrinks and thickens, becoming opaque; apparent forward movement of dorsal and anal fins.
Pigmentation:
Yolk-sac - pre-flexion: eye pigment not complete at 5.8 mm; 4 midlaterally starting at anus; scaterred over anus; around notochord tip; dorsally on gut; on ventral margin of tail.
Flexion: 1 over eye and heart; midlaterally beginning at about 23% BL, ending over anus; less over anus; over notochord; on developing C rays and vertically along hypurals; dorsally on gut; on ventral margin of caudal peduncle.
Postflexion: increasing over eye to form a crescentic patch; enlarging over heart; midlaterally becoming vertical dashes between myomere segments; on dorsal surface of gut from throat, becoming horizontal dashes.
Sequence of fin development: pectoral fin, principal caudal fin rays, dorsal fin, anal fin, procurrent caudal fin rays, pelvic fin. |