A comparative study on the morphometric characters of fishes belonging to family : centracanthidae in the Egyptian mediterranean waters

Abstract EN

-A comparison betw een the morphom etric ch ar acters for Sp icara flexuosa, Spicara smari s and Spicara maena (Family: Ce ntraca nthidae ) co llec te d monthly from the Egy ptian Med iterran e an waters du ring 19l)J was carrie d out.

T he sta tistica l ana lysis using th e co- var ranee te st shows the fo llowing res ults .

Ten morphometric cha rac te rs in S .

[lcx uosa and S .

smaris a rc sig nifica nt for the diffe re nt ia tion betwee n the two species .

Th ese a re : forked len gth .

standard length .

head len gth.

dorsal fin base.

pre-pectoral length .

pre-ve ntral le ngth ; a nal-fin len gth .

body depth.

post -orbital len gth a nd eye diamet er while pre-do rsal len gth .

pre-ana l length.

pr e-orbit al length and inter-orbital width ar e no n significan t.

Onl y three morphometric cha rac te rs ou t of fourteen arc re liab le fo r the di ffe re ntia tion be twee n S.

[lex uosa and S.

/1/U (' Il I/ .

Th ese ar e : dorsal fin base.

pr e-anal leng th an d post o rhita l lcngth.

In case of S, smaris and S.

/1/1/ (' //{1 o nly three out of fou rtee n rnorpornctric charac te rs arc not significant for the diffe rentiation be tween the two species.

T hese arc: forked leng th.

pr e-d o rsal len gth a nd do rsa l fin ba se.