Lampriformes: Lampridae: H I A2A

Lampris cf guttatus (Brunnich, 1788)

Spotted opah

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
2350	0	n/a	clear	narrow	n/a	36% of NL	ca 45

Egg: This egg has only been seen on two DNA confirmed occsions, but was easily recognised by its red chorion. It was only confused with CDIA1 when that species lacked a furry chorion. Incubation is at least 10 days (23°C).

Larva description: The newly hatched larva has lightly pigmented eyes, with long dorsal and pelvic fin elements (D). The larva resembles other lampriformes, but instead of a single dorsal fin thread with leaflike expansions as seen in Regalecus (CDIA1) and Zu cristatus larvae (also CDIA1), has 4 elongate dorsal spines, and long threadlike extensions to the pelvic fins. D: 2 days PH, 14 days post collection; E: NH 13 days post collection.

Both larvae were successfully barcoded. They provided a match with adult fish identified as Lampris guttatus, from Australia (BOLD). An adult collected off Durban and identified as L. guttatus, does not match these two larvae, indicating that there may be two cryptic species in South African waters. In fact there appear to be three species in this complex, the third apparently confined to the northern hemisphere (Meagan Sundberg, NOAA, Hawaii, pers.comm.). A paper is currently in preparation to describe this species, while the southern hemisphere complex requires further study.

Both eggs were collected in summer, one in January 2009, and the other in December 2009.