Bothidae: L III F9

Unknown

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
600-695	1	120-145	clear	narrow	stern	46% of NL	30+

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Egg: On most occasions my notes report no pigment on the embryo in the egg (A). Occasionally very fine black pigment was seen on the embryo, and a faint white blush midtail, which can also be seen in the NH larva (A). The oil globule is clear. Incubation is 22-24 hours. The eggs are sometimes seen fresh, other times hatched or about to, implying evening and morning spawning.

Larva: The long gut, slim shape of the larva (C), and two white-yellow pigment patches, are distinctive. The coiled gut can be seen in D. The dorsal and ventral finfold edges are serrated, and the only black pigment is a line of fine dots ventrally on the notochord, from anus to tip (D1). B: NH, C: 2 days, D: 4 days (26°C).

This is one of those species that I probably undercounted, because it looks so like LIIIG4 and LIIIG7, which are far more common. It was only counted, when found alone and hatched out. It could usually be separated from LIIIG7 by the red pigment in the latter being visible prior to hatching, and from LIIIG4, by the white pigment blotch on the edge of the dorsal finfold, as well as the longer gut at the pigmented eye stage (4 days). I was not able to rear this larva. Seven hatched larvae have been barcoded, and they cluster as 1 species,among other bothids on the barcode cladogram, but no match with adult material has been found (BOLD).

linked samples	Offshore	Inshore
Eggs	178	62
Hits	4	16

This species was seen rarely, but all through the year off Park Rynie (blue graph). It was not seen in the DHM samples. The Park Rynie linked samples showed more eggs in the offshore samples (74%), but this was biased by two large samples. Nevertheless the percentage is lower than the two indicator species, indicating spawning around the 30m depth contour. See Section 7.3 and Table 1 of the Introductory Notes, for more information on the linked samples.