Life history and habitat use of the speckled worm eel, Myrophis punctatus, along the east coast of the United States Kenneth W. Able & Dennis M. Allen & Gretchen Bath-Martin & Jonathan A. Hare & Donald E. Hoss & Katrin E. Marancik & Perce M. Powles & David E. Richardson & J. Christopher Taylor & Harvey J. Walsh & Stanley M. Warlen & Charles Wenner Received: 27 August 2010 / Accepted: 2 May 2011 / Published online: 15 June 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Abstract Many species of fishes along the east coast of the United States have complex life histories, especially those that move over hundreds of kilo- meters across ocean and estuarine habitats. To further unravel the life history of one of these, the speckled worm eel, Myrophis punctatus we examined samples from extensive time series and discrete samples collected in the ocean and estuaries between Florida and Massachusetts. We now surmise spawning occurs between fall and early winter in the ocean south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and in the vicinity of the Bahamas. The pelagic leptocephalus larvae (10– 80 mm Total Length [TL]) are transported north in the Gulf Stream and across the continental shelf to arrive at estuarine inlets at ages of 53 – 110 days. Their estuarine immigration and abundance varies along the east coast, with higher levels occurring at inlets in South Carolina (North Inlet), and North Carolina (Beaufort Inlet), during the winter and early spring. Much lower abundances occur in New Jersey (Little Egg Inlet) in winter and spring and again in the summer. These ingressing individuals were euryodontic leptocephali and metamorphic stages and were shrinking to lengths of 76–52 mm TL as these stages progressed. Metamorphic individuals and glass eels subsequently settle and burrow in estuarine sediments, as do all subsequent stages, and thereby become relatively unavailable to many sampling gears. In estuaries they Environ Biol Fish (2011) 92:237–259 DOI 10.1007/s10641-011-9837-8 Authors are arranged alphabetically. K. W. Able (*) Rutgers University Marine Field Station, 800 Great Bay Blvd, Tuckerton, NJ 08087, USA e-mail: able@marine.rutgers.edu D. M. Allen Baruch Marine Field Laboratory, University of South Carolina, PO Box 1630, Georgetown, SC 29442, USA J. A. Hare : K. E. Marancik : D. E. Richardson : H. J. Walsh NOAA/NMFS/NEFSC, Narragansett Laboratory, 28 Tarzwell Drive, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA G. Bath-Martin : D. E. Hoss : J. C. Taylor : S. M. Warlen NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC, Beaufort Laboratory, 101 Pivers Island Road, Beaufort, NC 28516, USA P. M. Powles Department of Biology, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada K9J 7B8 C. Wenner South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Marine Resource Research Institute, 217 Ft. Johnson Road, PO Box 12559, Charleston, SC 29422, USA