Fishery bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service - NOAA

YOUNG OF SOME MARINE FISHES IN LOWER CHESAPEAKE BAY, VA. 87
riorly. The body chromatophores have disappeared and their place is taken by a
thick peppering of black dots over the sides. The tips of the elevated dorsal and
anal fins are heavily pigmented with black (fig. 7).
PORONOTUS TRIACANTHUS (Peck). Butterfish
Distribution.—Young butterfish were taken abundantly in plankton from May 25
to Aug. 19, 1929, and from May 28 to Sept. 12, 1930. The young fish, similar to
FIGURE 5.—РергНш alepidotus. From a specimen 7 mm. long.
Peprilus, were generally found in association with the coelenterates, Dactylometra
and Cyanea. Butterfish 6 mm. long were secured from May 25 to July 23, indicating
a late spring and early summer spawning season. The young were taken at all
collecting points.
Description.—The young butterfish ranged from 1.8 to 57 mm, in length. On
the basis of an extensive series of butterfish from Chesapeake Bay, the writer believes
FiouBE б.—Peprílua alcpiáotus. From a specimen 9 mm. long.
the fish represented in figures 62, 63, 64, and 65 (Kuntz and Radcliffe 1918) are not
the young of the butterfish, Poronotus triacanthus, but most probably the young of a
hake, Urophycis. Several fish obtained in Chesapeake Bay in 1929 are herein described
as larval butterfish. Several figures of larger butterfish from Kuntz and
Radcliffe (1918) are reproduced to show the gradual transformation to the adult
shape.