| Slender body becoming somewhat compressed and less slender with development; head relatively small, unpigmented; snout relatively short; eyes slightly elliptical with lunate choroid tissue; relative eye size increases with development; gut moderate in length, slightly sigmoid; anteroventral pair of melanophores on gut coalesces in ventral midline during flexion stage; postanal pigment series persists throughout larval period (vs. early coalescence in the deep-bodied, big-headed D. pacificus); Br2 photophores form by 6-9 mm; PO5 by 7.5 mm; PO1 by 8.2 mm; PO2, PO3, VO1, and AOa1 by about 10.5 mm.
Pigmentation:
Preflexion: initially, up to 15 dashes in postanal median ventral series, with little coalescence (10-14 dashes) in preflexion larvae; earliest larvae have a pair on terminal gut section, 1in the caudal region and 2 lateral gut pairs (1 at about midgut and 1 anteriorly); by about 4.4 mm, the anterior lateral gut pair has moved anteroventrad; by about 5.2 mm, 1 present above the gas bladder.
Flexion: 9-11 in postanal series; anteroventral pair on gut coalesces to 1 on ventral midline.
Postflexion: postanal series coalesces to about 5-6 embedded blotches; 1-4 in vertical series on posterior hypural edge.
Sequence of fin development: caudal, dorsal and anal, pectorals, pelvics. |
