Joanne Lyczkowski-Shultz¹, MAŁGORZATa Konieczna² and William J. Richards³

¹Southeast Fisheries Science Center, 3209 Frederic St., Pascagoula, MS 39567, USA
²Sea Fisheries Institute, Plankton Sorting and Identification Center, K. Królewicza 4, 71-550 Szczecin, Poland
³Southeast Fisheries Science Center, 75 Virginia Beach Blvd., Miami, FL 33149, USA

Key words: fish larvae, ontogeny, Beryciformes, Gulf of Mexico.

Abstract.
Since 1982 Polish and American scientists have cooperatively amassed a great body of knowledge on the early life stages of marine fishes from the Gulf of Mexico and adjacent waters.  Identification of larvae remains a difficult task because the larvae of less than 30% of fishes in this region have been described. Our recent examination of young beryciform fishes, taken in over 8000 ichthyoplankton samples collected during Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) surveys in 1982 to 1995, yielded new insights into the early life history of these unusual, rarely collected fishes. Six families of beryciform fishes were represented among the specimens we examined. The squirrelfishes and soldierfishes, family Holocentridae, were the most numerous group with 549 specimens, including 65 rhynchichthys-stage juveniles. Nearly as numerous were the young of the bigscales, family Melamphaidae, comprising 511 specimens among which all four known genera of the family were represented. Only a few specimens were observed in each of the remaining four families: Polymixiidae, Diretmidae, Trachichthyidae, and Gibberichthyidae.