Fig. 2. The symmetry of larval tails and trunks. All measurements are relative to the midline axis and are expressed in terms of body length (see Materials and methods). The lower plots in A and B give the mean values for the surface of the trunk and tail (vertical dashes). Dotted lines connect body positions along the longitudinal axis from the lower image with their corresponding position in the box plot data shown above. The upper plots show the median and quartiles of data on opposite sides of the midline (N=18). (A) In the lower graph, the average shape of the larval body from a dorsal view is traced with vertical tick marks. The thickness of the cellular portion of the tail is visible in the tail region. The distance between the midline and the left margin is statistically indistinguishable from the distance between the midline and the right margin at all antero-posterior positions. (B) In the lower graph, the shape of the average larva as viewed from a lateral perspective is traced with vertical tick marks. In the tail region, the profile of the tail fin is traced. No significant differences were found between the distances of the dorsal (filled columns) and ventral (open columns) margins from the midline at any position along the length of the body.
