Abstract:The morphological characteristics and distribution of chromatophores, as well as body color changes during early life history(0~40dph) of Acanthopagrus schlegelii were observed and photographed．The larval melanophores occurred firstly at blastopore colsure stage. Larval xanthophores occurred at olfactory vesicle stage，and iridophores at 6dph on the upper side of eye, then on the abdominal cavity (28dph) and around the opercle (32dph). Melanophores appeared as spots, then formed dendrites，and the number of cells with dendrites increased during the ontogenetic process. At 28dph, the larval melanophores were substituted by adult spotted melanophores. Xanthophores coocurred with the melanophores during the early ontogeny, then obscured due to the overlapping by melanophores with no obvious morphological changes during the entire study. Melanin aggregation at 6~8 segements from the tail in newly-hatched larvae became a special characteristics of this species. At 28dph, the larval body color developed into the pattern formation stage, and firstly three stripes formed, then seven stripes at 40dph. And from then on, the body color was similar to that of the adult, which suggests that the mode pattern was already formed.
