Zeidae: L I A3

Zeus faber Linnaeus, 1758

John Dory

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
1800-2185	1	310-360	clear	narrow	stern	51% of NL	ca.32

Egg: Black spots develop all over embryo & yolk in this egg (A & A1). The oil globule is light to bright amber. Incubation takes >5 days.

Larva: The yolksac larva has well-pigmented eyes (C), and two wedges of pigment extending into the finfolds, posterior to the anus. The few eggs seen and hatched, failed to develop past this stage. C: 1 day, D: plankton collected larva, just completing flexion, of unknown age, from off Park Rynie, 22 May 2004. Although this is a zeiform, it is probably not Zeus, based on literature illustrations Tighe & Keene(1984, Fig. 212D).

The yolksac larva shown here (Plate C) matches the illustration of Tighe & Keene(1984, Fig. 212A). Only one hatched larva has been barcoded, and this has confirmed the identification, matching 2 locally collected adult Zeus faber (BOLD). Further larvae will be sequenced to confirm the match.

Linked samples	Offshore	Inshore
Eggs	4	4
Hits	4	3

The limited data on seasonal spawning off Park Rynie, suggests a winter and spring spawning period (blue graph). The egg was not seen in the DHM samples. The Park Rynie linked samples data is too sparse to provide any useful information. The egg has not been seen since May 2005 (2011 update).