Triglidae: L II A4

Trigloporus lastoviza africana Smith, 1934

African gurnard

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
1295-1320	1	230-325	clear	narrow	stern	42% of NL	ca35

Egg: The developing embryo is peppered with black and greenish-yellow stellate pigment spots, which also appear on the yolk and oil globule.. The oil globule is light amber. Incubation is 45-50 hours.

Larva: The early larva (B) retains the yellow-brown pigment seen in the late egg stage, with large stringy yellow and black chromatophores covering both finfolds. Finfold pigment has almost disappeared by day 4 (C), and the pectorals are enlarged, with a dark edge. But for the myomere count, one might mistake this larva for a scorpaenid (<30), platycephalid (27) or Thunini (39-41). B: 1 day, C: 3 days, D: 4 days (25°C).

This egg has only been seen off Park Rynie on 9 occasions (blue graph, to 2011). After not being seen since August 1997, the egg was seen 5 times in 2011, and twice in 2013. The larva hatched fron an egg collected 11 August 2013 has yielded a partial sequence (459bp) which matches 8 locally collected adults, 6 from the Agulhas Bank and 2 from Pumula in KZN (A. Connell 2015 update).