Marine Biology in the United States

Abstract

UNDER the direction of Dr. A. G. Mayer, the Department of Marine Biology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington continues to carry out researches of great value, and vol. xii. of the Papers from the department, issued March, 1918, fully maintains the high standard of previous volumes. From the point of view of general interest, perhaps the most striking paper is Mr. E. W. Gudger's account of the habits of the gaff-topsail catfish (Felichthys felis), a large catfish which is found at Beaufort, North Carolina. In this species the ova, which are very large, being as much as 1 in. in diameter, are carried in the mouth of the male parent until the larvæ are hatched, and the young are retained in this situation for some considerable time until the yolk-sac has been absorbed. The largest number of eggs found in the mouth of any one male was fifty-five, and numbers above twenty were quite frequent. The habit of oral gestation in catfishes of various species and from many different geographical regions has, of course, long been known, but the carefully ascertained details recorded in the present paper will be much appreciated by field naturalists.