Food Content of Six Commercial Fishes from Mississippi Sound

Specific dietary contents from six fishes collected in Mississippi Sound are recorded. In order of their importance, primary components grouped in major taxonomic categories were fishes, penaeid shrimps, and other crustaceans for Cynoscion nebulosus; Crustaceans and fishes for C. arenarius; fishes and crustaceans for C. nothus; crustaceans, pelecypods, and polychaetes for Pogonias cromis; crustaceans, molluscs, polychaetes, and fishes for Archosargus probatocephalus; and fishes and penaeid shrimps for Paralichthys lethostigma. Principal items in the diets of most of the fishes included Anchoa mitchilli, Penaeus aztecus, P. setiferus, and Callinectes sapidus. Those crustaceans show that competition exists for commercial shellfishes in Mississippi Sound. Ratios among the different dietary items vary, according at least to species of fish, length of fish, season, specific location, and abundance of available prey. Some of these variations are documented and are additionally related to selected findings by other authors sampling different localities. We suggest that examination of food items in Archosargus probatocephalus can serve as a practical means to sample and assess seasonal prevalence and abundance of a wide range of invertebrates throughout different habitats in Mississippi Sound and elsewhere.

Two New Species of Prosorhynchinae (Trematoda : Gasterostomata) from the Fiji Islands

The following trematodes are part of a collection made by the author at Suva, Fiji in 1951. 1. Prosorhynchus squamatus Odhner, 1905 is believed to be distinct from P. crucibulus and most other species in the genus on the basis of its oval-shaped rhynchus. It thus remains, as originally, the type species of the genus. 2. Prosorhynchus thapari n. sp. is described from Plectropoma maculatum (Bloch) from Suva, Fiji. The "P. facilis (Ozaki, 1924)" of Nagaty (1937) is considered to be a synonym. 3. Neidhartia polydactyli n. sp. is described from Polydactylus plebius (Bonnaterre) from Suva, Fiji.