Morphology, Meristic Counts, and Melanophore Description for Dionda diaboli (Cyprinidae) during Development
Date
2005-05
Authors
Hulbert, Julie
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Abstract
Devils River minnow Dionda diaboli, listed as threatened (USA) and endangered (Mexico), coexists with at least three congeners throughout its south Texas and northern Mexico range. Monitoring of abundance, distribution, reproduction, and dispersion will be improved with the capability to distinguish larval and juvenile Devils River minnows from congeners and other cyprinids. I described and quantified various characteristics of Devils River minnow early life stages at intervals ranging from time of hatch to 128 days to facilitate larval and juvenile identification. Distinguishing characteristics included mid-lateral melanophores separate from a rounded basicaudal spot by Day 8, lateral snout to eye melanophores by Day 16, initial coiling of intestine by Day 32, wedge-shaped basicaudal spot by Day 64, and mid-lateral double dashes along lateral line and scale borders by Day 128. Collectively, these characteristics and others described herein provided a detailed account of Devils River minnow development through the juvenile stage, but this information may be inadequate for confident identification until early development of other cyprinids is described.
Description
Keywords
Mexico, Dionda, Texas, endangered species
Citation
Hulbert, J. (2005). Morphology, meristic counts, and melanophore description for Dionda diaboli (Cyprinidae) during development (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University-San Marcos, San Marcos, Texas.