ALTERNATIVE LIFE-HISTORIES OF THE GENUS LUCANIA .1. EARLY ONTOGENY OF L-PARVA, THE RAINWATER KILLIFISH

This is the first of three papers devoted to the description and interpretation of early morphological development in altricial and precocial species within the genus Lucania. This study focussed on the early life history of the rainwater killifish, Lucania parva. Reproductively mature specimens were collected in brackish impoundments of the St. Marks National Wildife Refuge in northwest Florida, and transported to the laboratory where they served as brood stock for specimens described in this study. Laboratory-reared offspring of L. parva were described according to the saltatory theory of ontogeny, which gives a sampling design based on morphological, rather than chronological, progression. The morphological development of these offspring is described on the basis of detailed illustrations, photomicrographs, and measurements of mensural and meristic characters. This account of early ontogeny, in combination with a corresponding study on the early ontogeny of the bluefin killifish, L. goodei (Crawford and Balon 1994a), establishes the empirical basis for an altricial-precocial life history model (Crawford and Balon 1994b).