Kuhliidae: E III B3A

Kuhlia mugil (Schneider, 1801)

Barred flagtail

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
720	1	190	segmented	narrow	bow	37% of NL	26

Egg: Although this egg has been encountered on 12 occasions, it has only been recognised as a newly hatched larva, and the egg has not been photopraphed. The size given is an estimate based on the size of the larva, while the oil globule in Plate B can be measured.

Larva: The early larva has the pigment characteristics of a haemulid (B & C), but by day 3 the larva has begun to develop a blue sheen over the gut that has not been seen in other haemulids described here (EIIIB2, EIIIB3 & EIIIB4). In addition, the gut length appears a little short for a haemulid (D). By day 4, all yellow pigment has disappeared, and the metallic blue over the gut and eyes has intensified (D). B: 1 day, C: 2 days, D: 3 days, E: 4 days (25°C).

A single larva has been barcoded, and matches the barcode of 4 adult fish collected locally. Confirmation awaits further larval sequences.

The limited amount of data suggests that the species is a late summer and autumn spawner (blue graph). The egg was not seen in the DHM samples.In the linked samples, 63% of the eggs were in inshore samples, suggesting inshore spawning. See Section 7.3 and Table 1 of the Introductory Notes, for more information on the linked samples.