Age and growth of Callionymus lyra L.

Abstract

The Common Dragonet, Callionymus lyra L., is one of the commonest fishes in the Plymouth area, and is widely distributed in European seas. Recent reports indicate that it occurs also off the coast of West Africa (Fowler, 1936; Poll, 1949). This fish, like others of the genus, attracts attention because, although it has very little economic importance, it is strikingly coloured and the sexes are markedly different. Work has been done on the breeding by Holt (1897, 1898), and by Holt & Scott (1898); on ova and larvae by M'Intosh (1885), M'Intosh & Prince (1889), Cunningham (1891), Holt (1897), Ehrenbaum (1905–9), Fage (1918), Mielck (1925), Duncker, Ehrenbaum, Kyle, Mohr & Schnakenbeck (1929); on seasonal abundance and distribution of post-larvae off Plymouth by Russell (1930–47) and Corbin (1948); and on the skeleton by Günther (1861) and Ford (1937). The mature males are provided with remarkable secondary sexual characters both in coloration and in relative lengths of snout and of median fins, which render them so different from the females that they were originally regarded as different species and known as the Gemmeous Dragonet (male C. lyra L.) and the Sordid Dragonet (female C. lyra L.=C. dracunculus L.) respectively (Donovan, 1808; Yarrell, 1859; Couch, 1863). The sexual dimorphism and seasonal variation of this species has been much studied by Holt (1898), Smitt (1892–95), Gallien (1934), Letaconnoux (1949) and Desbrosses (1949). Very little information has so far been provided about its age and growth, with which the present paper deals.