Resumen

GACITUA, Santiago; OYARZUN, Ciro  y  VEAS, Rodrigo. Morphometric and meristic multivariate analysis in patagonian blennie Eleginops maclovinus (Cuvier, 1830). Rev. biol. mar. oceanogr. [online]. 2008, vol.43, n.3, pp. 491-500. ISSN 0718-1957.  doi: 10.4067/S0718-19572008000300008.

The Patagonian blennie is one of the few Notothenioidei distributed outside Antarctic or subantarctic waters. It is a coastal species generally associated with estuarine systems and has been exploited as a fishery resource in Chile from 1957. In this research we studied the variability in morphometric and meristic characters of E. maclovinus caught by fishermen at the Bío Bío river mouth (36°48'30"S; 73º10'00"W) and Puerto Montt (41°29'S; 72°57'W). From the net truss design on fish morphology, 27 morphometric characters emerged, also, the information of 8 meristic characters was registered. All the information was analyzed through multivariate approximations. Morphometric variables and meristic counts that explain some differentiation between localities through Principal Components Analysis (PCA) were determined. The groups and individuals were compared using Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA) in order to determine the reclassification percentages according with the fish shape. Using Covariance Analysis (ANCOVA) we tested if size was a variable that influenced the morphometric results. Our results revealed differences in morphometry between the individuals coming from the two localities but those differences were not completely independent of body size. The results for meristics counts did not allow recognition of meaningful differences between localities. The morphometrics results showed that the length, as descriptor of body size, would stress the differences between populations.

Palabras clave : Patagonian blennie; ACP; DA; ANCOVA.