Fish larvae

By Yasunobu Matsuura and Maria Pilar Olivar

Fish eggs and larvae are only temporary members of the plankton, and their occurrence in samples is related to spawning activity in adult fish. This chapter covers over South Atlantic 600 fish species, belonging to 22 orders and 96 families of the Division Teleostei.

Contents
Fi.1 Introduction
Fi.2 Sampling
Fi.3 Laboratory techniques and terminology
Fi.4 Geographic distribution and abundance
Fi.5 Vertical distribution

Identification
There is no key available; the reader is referred to Moser (1996a) for a first-step identification to order or suborder level. Further identification of South Atlantic fish larvae must be carried out by comparing family-level descriptions and pictures in the present volume.

Species
Species are not described and therefore are absent from the Species module, though for some hundred species pictures of larvae are available. See the page for Division Teleostei (and following pages) in the Higher taxa module for information at order and family level. An alphabetical checklist of 609 species can be found there also.