Larval development of the spotfin tonguefish (Symphurus oligomerus Mahadeva and Munroe, 1990) (Pleuronectiformes: Cynoglossidae) from the Gulf of California, Mexico
2010
Martinez, Ricardo J. Saldierna | Medina, Gerardo Aceves | Navarro, Enrique A. González
Larval and early juvenile stages of Symphurus oligomerus aredescribed from 24 specimens from the Gulf of California. Meristic features were 48 – 49 total vertebrae, 87–94dorsal-fin rays, 73–77 anal-fin rays, 12 caudal-fin rays, and five hypural bones. Seven larvae and one juvenile were cleared and stained to obtain the pterygiophore formula (1-3-2-2-2) that confirmed the identification of S. oligomerus. The pigment pattern from preflexion to juvenile stage consists of three bands on the dorsal margin and two bands on the ventral margin formed by star-shaped melanophores on the left side of the body. The intestine in preflexion to postflexion larvae forms an abdominalprojection that ends in a short conical appendix. The intestine is supported by three cartilaginous struts; larvaewith these physical attributes are called exterilium larvae. Preflexion larvae have two elongated dorsal-finrays, and in flexion to postflexion larvae the second to the fourth dorsalfin rays are elongate. We found anapparent connection between the size at metamorphosis of the species of Symphurus and the depth distributionrange of adults such that the fish species that metamorphose at a larger size have a deeper distributionas adults and exterilium larvae seem to correspond to species that have deeper distributions.
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