EGG CHARACTERISTICS AND BREEDING SEASON FOR WOODS HOLE SPECIES* CONTENTS and INTRODUCTION

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1. Phylogenetic Key
   
2. Data: Alphabetical Listing by Genus (Table 1)
   
3. Information For Contributors
   
4. Additional Sources
   
5. Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION
This "Egg Compendium" provides information on the properties of eggs and embryos of marine invertebrates and fish utilized in developmental biology and related biomedical disciplines, and on their availability at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Organisms are listed by phylum in the Egg Compendium Key, and alphabetically by genus in Table 1. In addition to data, the table contains links to the MBL Species Database and Catalog, the Marine Models Electronic Record (Biological Bulletin Publications), the Keys to Marine Invertebrates of the Woods Hole Region (Biological Bulletin Publications), and the text from which most of the data are drawn: Costello, D.P., and C. Henley (1971). Methods for Obtaining and Handling Marine Eggs and Embryos. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA.These authors noted that "in the past, much valuable time-saving information has been lost because it passed from investigator to investigator merely by word of mouth," and considered their work an extension of E. E. Just's "Basic Methods for Experiments on Eggs of Marine Animals" (P. Blakiston's Son & Co., Inc., Philadelphia,1939). They wished to enable investigators to select an egg best suited to a given experimental purpose, and among the variables covered were size, degree of transparency or opacity, pigmentation, surface coats, stage and fertilizable condition, rate of development, and type of cleavage. The primary objective of this compendium (and others in the series) is the same as that of the authors cited above: to give newer generations of investigators, instructors, and students ready access to practical information that would otherwise be difficult to obtain and that might even become lost. Online publication enables us to go one step further, with such compendia regarded as ongoing works that can be updated and added to periodically. Therefore, contributions are invited! Please see the Egg Compendium Information For Contributors.