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PREFACE PREFACE The Upper Colorado River Basin includes a vast area of federal land under the stewardship of the Bureau of Land Management. With a rapidly- expanding energy industry and ever-increasing agricultural, industrial, municipal, and recreational demands on the waters of the basin, impacts on the aquatic systems of the basin are particularly critical. Six endemic fishes are already in danger of extinction. To make environmentally-sound management decisions, the Bureau of Land Management, and other federal, state, and local agencies with simi- lar responsibilities, must have an understanding of the ecosystems poten- tially impacted, the organisms included in the systems, and the require- ments for survival of all life history stages. Unfortunately, we are just now learning to recognize the larvae of many of the fish we must study, understand, and manage. This assemblage of developmental data, based on work by many university students, is intended to alleviate the problem. The information has already facilitated work on the early life history stages of fish' in selected river reaches in western Colorado. However, much remains to be done. Some species still await morpho- metric and meristic analysis and/or illustration. A few studies await acquisition of sufficient specimen material. Much data already obtained have yet to be summarized in the form of standardized tables and graphs. When this work is completed, a relatively-comprehensive guide will be possible. The planned guide will include most of the background text presented herein, keys by developmental phase, and a species account consisting of Larval Fish Laboratory Identification Circulars. In the interim, this publication is intended to make as much prepared information on larval fish identification and the cypriniform larvae of the Upper Colorado River System available to potential users as is possible under current temporal and financial constraints. Editorial comments, sugges- tions, and notices of observed errors are solicited and will be appre- ciated by the author.