Scorpididae: F II B1

Neoscorpis lithophilus (Gilchrist & Thompson, 1908)

Stonebream

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
940-1060	1	220-290	segmented	narrow	stern	47% of NL	24

Egg: The oil globule is light amber. Orange and black pigment covers the larva, densely, especially on the posterior half. Splashy yellow pigment spots are on the oil globule dorsally, black ventrally. The larva sometimes looks green in the egg. Yolk segmentation is heavy. Incubation time is about 45 hours (24°C).

Larva: The newly hatched larva has a dense pattern of black pigment (B2), underlying a more scattered yellow pigment pattern (B). The 4-day larva develops a metallic sheen to the gut and eyes (D) and a broken line of black pigment both dorsally and ventrally along the notochord D1).  B 1 day, C: 2 days, D&E: 4 days, F: 5 days (24°C).

The egg is similar to FIIA7, but the early larva did not have the black-spotted finfold of the FIIA7 1-day larva. Seven larvae hatched from eggs, have been barcoded; they matched 3 locally collected adult Neoscorpis, and 6 plankton juveniles (BOLD).

The small number of eggs collected, indicate a late summer spawner (blue graph). It was not recognised in the DHM samples. The Park Rynie linked samples data is biased by a single offshore sample which yielded 55 eggs. Remove that and the majority of eggs were found inshore. See Section 7.3 and Table 1 of the Introductory Notes, for more information on the linked samples.

Linked samples	Offshore	Inshore
Eggs	96	56
Hits	11	27