Scorpaenidae: L II B7

Apistus carinatus (Bloch, 1801)

Bearded waspfish

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
910-1100	1	190-220	clear	narrow	stern	45% of NL	26

Egg: This and the next species (LIIB8) were separated from other eggs with yellow pigment on the yolk, by the paleness of the yellow (almost white), and the tendency for the pigment spots to be concentrated on the edge of the yolk (A). Both the embryo and oil globule are dotted with white-yellow and black pigment spots (A). The oil globule is clear or pink to light amber. Pectoral buds can be seen on the late embryo, within the egg. The egg is sometimes slightly oval. The yolk is rough surfaced. Incubation is 45-48 hours.

Larva: The larva, too, is difficult to separate from LIIB8, until reared to the pigmented-eye stage, when the spots on the pectorals (C) were used to separate this species.  B: 1 day, C: 3 days, D: 4 days (25°C).

DNA barcodes are available for 5 larvae hatched from this egg, and they match sequences of 6 adult Apistus carinatus collected form the KZN coast (BOLD).

Linked samples	Offshore	Inshore
Eggs	54	36
Hits	26	25

This was an uncommon egg off Park Rynie, with spawning most of the year (blue graph). It was not seen in the DHM samples. The occurrence of eggs at Park Rynie, through the 25 years of sampling, has remained fairly steady (white graph). The Park Rynie linked samples showed slightly more of these eggs offshore (60%), which indicate spawning in about 30m water depth (but numbers are low). See Section 7.3 and Table 1 of the Introductory Notes, for more information on the linked samples.