Kuhliidae: E III B3A

Kuhlia mugil (Schneider, 1801)

Barred flagtail

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
720	1	190	segmented	narrow	bow	37% of NL	26

Egg: The egg is characterised by the relatively large oil globule, later darkened by black chromatophores, and the strongly amber hue to the egg and larva. Yolk segmentation is curious in that it is often a single line running in a concentric ring near the yolk edge. The yolk surface is often rough making segmentation difficult to see, especially since it is not dense. The yellow of the late embryo is a brighter yellow than normally seen in Pomadasys striatus, with which this egg is most likely to be confused.

Larva: The early larva has the pigment characteristics of a haemulid (B & C), but by day 3 the larva has begun to develop a metallic blue sheen over the gut that has not been seen in other haemulids described here (EIIIB2, EIIIB3 & EIIIB4). In addition, the gut length appears a little short for a haemulid (D). By day 4, yellow pigment has all but disappeared, and the metallic blue over the gut and eyes has intensified (E). B: 1 day, C: 2 days, D: 3 days, E: 4 days (25°C).

A single larva has been barcoded, and matches the barcode of 4 adult fish collected locally (BOLD). Confirmation awaits further larval sequences.

The limited amount of data suggests that the species is a late summer and autumn spawner (blue graph). The egg was not recognised in the DHM samples. In the linked samples, 58% of the eggs were inshore, suggesting spawning within about 1km of shore, consistent with this being a tidal rockpool species. See Section 7.3 and Table 1 of the Introductory Notes, for more information on the linked samples.