COLLETTE and CHAO: SYSTEMATICS AND MORPHOLOGY OF THE BONITOS (SARDINI) 



ganization of the United Nations 1973), the two 

 species of bonitos that are presently of economic 

 importance are Sarda chiliensis and S. sarda. 

 Peruvian fishermen landed 54,000-73,000 metric 

 tons per year of the southeast population of S. 

 chiliensis in 1965-1972. Smaller catches by Chile 

 and of the northeast Pacific population by Mexico 

 and the United States made the total 65,000-94,000 

 metric tons per year during that period. Sarda 

 sarda is fished particularly by Turkey in the 

 Mediterranean and the Black Sea where 

 11,700-55,200 metric tons per year were landed in 

 1965-1972. Other catches of S. sarda by Spain, 

 Portugal, Greece, Angola, Argentina, and Brazil 

 made the total 25,000-65,000 metric tons per year 

 in 1965-1972. Both the Japanese and the Koreans 

 fish for S. orientaXis and there are smaller catches 

 elsewhere throughout its range. Sarda australis 

 comes into the markets in Sydney and probably 

 elsewhere in southeastern Australia. In 1971, 

 Morocco was reported to have landed 600 metric 

 tons of Orcynopsis and we have seen Orcynopsis in 

 the markets in Tunis. We have seen specimens of 

 Cybiosarda in the Sydney fish market mixed with 

 S. australis. The only commercial catch of 

 Allothunnus was the 230 tons taken with purse 

 seines off eastern Tasmania in June 1974 (Webb 

 and Wolfe 1974). Gymnosarda occurs around coral 

 reefs where it is taken by fishermen on hook and 

 line. 



Emphasis was placed on obtaining fresh or 

 frozen specimens from each population of each 

 species for dissection. Standard counts and 

 measurements were taken, color pattern was 

 recorded, and a search was made for parasitic 

 copepods. Results of the copepod study will be 

 reported on later by Roger F. Cressey (United 

 States National Museum, USNM). The viscera 

 were examined and drawn in situ following 

 removal of an oval portion of the ventral body wall. 

 The viscera were then removed and drawings were 

 made of the liver and other selected organs. The 

 kidneys and anterior parts of the arterial system 

 were then drawn. Counts of ribs and intermus- 

 cular bones were made and the specimen was then 

 skeletonized. Specimens were immersed in hot 

 water to assist removal of the flesh. 



For morphometric comparisons, the base 

 measurement used for fresh, frozen, and 

 preserved specimens was millimeters fork length 

 (mm FL). Skeletal material was measured in 

 millimeters skeletal length, the distance from the 

 anterior margin of the ethmoid to the posterior tip 



of the hypural plate, a distance somewhat shorter 

 than fork length. Skulls were measured from the 

 anterior margin of the ethmoid to the postero- 

 ventral junction of the skull with the first ver- 

 tebral centrum. 



This paper is divided into two major sections. 

 The first part describes and illustrates the 

 squamation, morphometry, meristic characters, 

 soft anatomy, and osteology of the Sardini. The 

 second part treats the genera and species sepa- 

 rately including synonymy, diagnosis (based on 

 characters from the first section), types of nominal 

 species, geographical distribution, and, for some 

 species, geographic variation. 



MATERIAL 



Abbreviations used for the institutions cited 

 herein are as follows: 



AB - Northwest Fisheries Center Auke Bay 



Laboratory, National Marine Fisheries 



Service, NOAA, Auke Bay, Alaska. 

 AMS - Australian Museum, Sydney. 

 ANSP -Academy of Natural Sciences, 



Philadelphia, Pa. 

 BMNH -British Museum (Natural History), 



London. 

 BPBM -Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, 



Hawaii. 

 CAS - California Academy of Sciences, San 



Francisco. 

 CBL -Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, 



Solomons, Md. 

 CSIRO -CSIRO Marine Biological Laboratory, 



Cronulla, N.S.W., Australia. 

 DM -Dominion Museum, Wellington, New 



Zealand. 

 FMNH -Field Museum of Natural History, 



Chicago, 111. 

 HUJ - Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 

 LACM - Los Angeles County Museum of Natural 



History, Los Angeles, Calif. 

 MACN - Museo Argentina de Ciencias Naturales, 



Buenos Aires. 

 MCZ - Museum of Comparative Zoology, Har- 

 vard. 

 MNHN -Mus6um National d'Histoire Naturelle, 



Paris. 

 MSNG - Museo di Storia Naturale, Genoa. 

 MSUF -Museo de La Specola, Universita di 



Firenze, Florence. 



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