Scomberesocidae: CD I A2

Scomberesox saurus (Richardson, 1842)

Saury

Egg diameter in µm	Number of oil globules	Diameter of oil globule in µm	Yolk texture	Perivitelline space	Position of oil globule at hatch	Gut length   at eye- pigment stage	Myomeres
2350-2670	0	N/A	segmented	narrow	N/A	59% of NL	64-70*

* Literature

Egg: This is another species with a long incubation period, and which, when collected, is often recorded as “pink and furry” (Plate B). The egg in Plate A is 4 days PC, but in the bowl, has stayed clear, and is possibly a different species (See HIA1). The egg takes up to 8 days to hatch (21^°C).

Larva: At hatching the larva has well developed eyes, a functional mouth, and little sign of a yolk sac (C).   Myomeres were not counted due to the dense blue pigment of the newly hatched larva. C: 10 days PC, 2 days post hatch,  D: 10 days PC, 5 days post hatch (22°C),  E: 15 days PC, 7days post hatch (21°C).

Six hatched larvae have been barcoded, all the same species, and they match the saury, Scomberesox saurus, based on sequences in BOLD. No locally collected adults have been barcoded.

This egg was fairly common off Park Rynie, with an average of about 8 per year over the study period. The spawning pattern (blue graph) indicates a winter and spring spawner. Curiously this species has shown a marked reduction in occurrence since 1993 (white graph).

Eggs were more common (82%) offshore, in the Park Rynie linked samples, lying between the two indicator species in Table 1, suggesting spawning occurs mostly around the 50m depth contour. See Section 7.3 and Table 1 of the Introductory Notes, for more information on the linked samples.

linked samples	Offshore	Inshore
Eggs	97	22
Hits	47	18