? Lophiiformes: D III A4

? Monkfishes and anglerfishes

Egg diameter in µm	Number of oil globules	Diameter of oil globule in µm	Yolk texture	Perivitelline space	Position of oil globule at hatch	Gut length   at eye- pigment stage	Myomeres
700-840	0	n/a	segmented	Narrow to moderate	n/a	49% of NL	21

Egg: This little egg, with its irregular shape, and distinctive flat spots (A), is very similar in size to DIIIA3 (700-800µm), and easily confused. As the egg develops, yellow pigment does not become as dense, resulting in the newly hatched larva being relatively sparsely pigmented (B). The egg has a narrow but variable perivitelline space, due to its irregular shape.

Larva: The 1-day larva is compact, with a greenish-yellow pigment outline to the head and finfolds (C). This finfold pigment remains with the larva through to at least 3 days (D & D1), but more evenly spread than DIIIA3. The eggs hatched in about 25 hours (23°C). C: 1 day, D: 3 days.

The asymmetrical shape of these eggs may be an indication that they are spawned in clusters. Mito (1963c) illustrates a strikingly similar egg, which he identifies as a lophiid (monkfish), later (Ikeda and Mito 1988), expanded the identification to Lophiiformes, thus including the anglerfishes. Seven larvae from this egg, have been sequenced, but no match has been found among the adult sequences currently available in BOLD (reference). The sequences of these 6 larvae indicate three different species. Noting that the pointed snout is more like a callionymid (CDIIIA1 and DIIIA3) than a lophiid (Mito, 1963c), it is interesting that all 7 were most closely associated with the cluster of callionymids in the dendrogram of South African fish larva and adult sequences.Two adult monkfish Lophius vomerinus have been sequenced, but do not match any of the larval sequences.

 

This egg is not uncommon in the Park Rynie samples (Introductory notes: Section 7, Table 3), with some 785 taken during the study. The egg was not recorded in the DHM samples. The species spawned all year round (blue graph). The annual catch off Park Rynie showed two extreme years, 1987 and 2005, with a small increasing trend from 1997 (white graph). The Park Rynie linked samples had 95% offshore, but over half these were in 1 sample. Even with that removed, however, they were still 90% offshore, indicating spawning offshore of the 50m depth contour. See Section 7.3 and Table 1 of the Introductory Notes, for more information on the linked samples.

Linked samples	Offshore	Inshore
Eggs	558	30
Hits	33	6