Description of early life history stages of the northern sculpin (Icelinus borealis Gilbert) (Teleostei: Cottidae)

• Main Author: Cartwright, Rachael L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Biology; Ecology; Fisheries; Bering Sea; Gulf of Alaska; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://aquaticcommons.org/8800/; http://fishbull.noaa.gov/1072/cartwright.pdf; http://aquaticcommons.org/8800/1/cartwright_Fish_bull_2009.pdf

Larvae of the genus Icelinus are collected more frequently than any other sculpin larvae in ichthyoplankton surveys in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea, and larvae of the northern sculpin (Icelinus borealis) are commonly found in the ichthyofauna in both regions. Northern sculpin are geographically isolated north of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, which allows for a definitive description of its early life history development in the Bering Sea. A combination of morphological characters, pigmentation, preopercular spine pattern, meristic counts, and squamation in later developmental stages is essential to identify Icelinus to the species level. Larvae of northern sculpin have 35–36 myomeres, pelvic fins with one spine and two rays, a bony preopercular shelf, four preopercular spines, 3–14 irregular postanal ventral melanophores, few, if any, melanophores ventrally on the gut, and in larger specimens, two rows of ctenoid scales directly beneath the dorsal fins extending onto the caudal peduncle. The taxonomic characters of the larvae of northern sculpin in this study may help differentiate northern sculpin larvae from its congeners, and other sympatric sculpin larvae, and further aid in solving complex systematic relationships within the family Cottidae.