Caristiidae: L I A1

Caristius sp.

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
1800-1970	1	530-650	clear	narrow	stern	28% of NL	ca.35

Egg: This large egg with its misty yolk and huge brown-amber oil globule (A), is matched in size by only one other egg, Lichia amia (EIA1), but the latter has a segmented yolk. As the embryo develops, the black pigment patches, and oil globule position further distinguish between the two (B, C & D). Incubation period is uncertain, but exceeds 4 days.

Larva: The early larva hatches with lightly pigmented eyes, a srtip of black pigment dorsally extending into the dorsal finfold, and black pigment both midtail and in the caudal finfold (E). By day 5, the pigment has clustered into1 midtail patch (G). The 3-day larva (F) is probably a second species..  E: NH, F: 3 days, G: 5 days (25°C).

The size of this egg, combined with the body pattern of the elongate but short-gutted larva, and the myomere count, suggest it might belong to a caristiid. Marcus (2006) illustrates the egg and early larva of Caristius maderensis. There are two species of Caristius known from off Durban (Heemstra 1986f), which are rare in collections. Seven hatched larvae have been successfully barcoded, indicating 1 species, while another 5, recognised as different due to the double dark patches of F above, indicate a second species. No matches have be found within BOLD.

Linked samples	Offshore	Inshore
Eggs	55	10
Hits	26	7

In the Park Rynie area, this is clearly a winter spawner (blue graph). The egg was not seen in the DHM samples, but at Park Rynie, it has maintained a fairly steady presence (white graph). Most of these eggs in the Park Rynie linked samples, were offshore (85%), but numbers are too low to be reliable. I would have expected an even higher offshore percentage for such an oceanic species, assuming the identification is correct. However, considering the long development time, the eggs have days of drifting before they hatch. See Section 7.3 and Table 1 of the Introductory Notes, for more information on the linked samples.