. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Zoology. 218 Bulletin Museum of Comparative Zoology, Vol. 140, No. 5. lormrm Figure 31. Subdermal canal system and portions of the cephalic lateral line of Peprilus burti, mm SL specimen. small, irregularly-spaced, but conspicuous pores are sometimes evident along the dorsal surface of P. ovotus (Fig. 10). The function of this extensive canal system is unknown. Whether the system is independent of the lateral line and whether sensory structures are present are unknown. If the canals contain a sensory mechanism, they may
. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Zoology. 218 Bulletin Museum of Comparative Zoology, Vol. 140, No. 5. lormrm Figure 31. Subdermal canal system and portions of the cephalic lateral line of Peprilus burti, mm SL specimen. small, irregularly-spaced, but conspicuous pores are sometimes evident along the dorsal surface of P. ovotus (Fig. 10). The function of this extensive canal system is unknown. Whether the system is independent of the lateral line and whether sensory structures are present are unknown. If the canals contain a sensory mechanism, they may function as receptors important in the formation and maintenance of schools. These fishes produce large amounts of mucous, and the system might be used in the dispersal of the mucous which may contain an agent that counter- acts coelenterate toxins. Walters (1963), in a study of the integument and subdermal canal system of the trachipterid fishes, has proposed that the canal system functions in boundary-layer control through dis- tributed dynamic damping. Such control could apparently decrease drag by 60 to 75 per cent. According to the hypothesis, as the skin pressure mounts beneath a growing boundary-layer perturbation, the layer will sink through the surface pores to enter the subdermal canals; the canal fluid will simultaneously flow toward regions of lower pressure and re-enter the boundary layer through the surface pores. This simultaneous series of events would dynamically damp the disturbance. Walters also found similar integuments in two species of Gempylidae. LaMonte (1958) reported that the skin of marlin, genus Makaira, has many minute, round open- ings. Whether such a system operates in Peprilus or in gempylids and marlin is un- known. Metabolic economy in Peprilus does not seem critical, and selection pres- sure for such a mechanism would not appear to be great. However, all the above possibilities as to function remain in question, and further investigation is re
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