Echeneidae: LIA6

Echeneidae: L I A6

Remora brachyptera (Lowe, 1839)

Spearfish remora

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
1585	1	340	clear	narrow	stern	60% of NL	?

Egg: The dense mix of black and pale yellow pigment imparted a greenish tint to this egg (A). The longest I have had this egg prior to hatching is 2 days, but it has not been collected in an early development stage. Incubation is likely 3-4 days.
Larva: The newly hatched larva has the oil globule centrally placed in the yolksac (B, see also FIA4). The 2-day larva retains the pigment pattern of the egg (C).

This egg and distinctive, elongate larva, has only been seen 5 times off Park Rynie, in the summer months of November to February. Only one of these has yielded a barcode, which does not match Echeneis naucrates or Phtheirichthys lineatus, the only 2 locally collected echeneids barcoded so far, neither does it match the barcode of Remora australis, which has been collected locally as an egg (FIA4), and identified from that species barcode in BOLD. The larva from an egg collected in November 2013 has matched Remora brachyptera (BOLD).