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



the supracleithral notch instead of a much wider 

 angle. Sarda australis resembles S. sarda in 

 characters such as the numbers of anal rays, gill 

 rakers, and upper and lower jaw teeth, occasional 

 presence of vomerine teeth (vs. never), having a 

 90° angle between the hyomandibular spine and 

 condyle, having the haemal postzygapophyses 

 longer than the prezygapophyses at the 

 precaudal-caudal vertebral junction, and having a 

 supramaxilla of intermediate width between the 

 wide one in S. chiliensis and the narrow one in S. 

 orientalis. Sarda australis resembles S. chiliensis 

 in having a short hyomandibular spine that does 

 not project beyond the condyle. 



Morphometrically (Tables 1, 18), Sarda aus- 

 tralis is very similar to the other species of Sarda. 

 It has a longer first dorsal fin base (315-343 

 thousandths of FL) than either S. chiliensis 

 (267-314) or eastern Pacific S. orientalis (282-302) 

 but overlaps with Indo-West Pacific S. orientalis 

 (285-327) and S. sarda (291-330). The maxilla is 

 longer (503-539 thousandths of head length) than 

 in S. chiliensis (460-503). 



Types.— Pelamys australis Macleay 1880:557. 

 Holotype: AMS Macleay Mus. F-333; 405 mm FL; 

 Australia, New South Wales, Sydney, Port Jack- 

 son. Counts: dorsal fin rays XIX -I- 16 -I- VII; anal fin 

 rays 15 -I- VI; pectoral fin rays 25-25; gill rakers 

 6-1-1-1-13 = 20; upper jaw teeth (left-right) 14-19; 

 lower jaw teeth 13-10; palatine teeth about 10 in 

 one long row; vertebrae 24-1-21 = 45; head length 

 82.9 mm, maxilla length 43.2 mm. 



Distribution.— Sarda australis has the most 

 restricted range of any species of bonito: the east 

 coast of Australia plus Norfolk Island (Figure 70). 

 Munro (1958a) gave the range as Queensland, New 

 South Wales, and Victoria. Whitley (1964a) stated 

 that S. australis ". . . is common at practically all 

 times off eastern Australia from about the 

 Capricorns [Queensland] to Sydney or even Gabo 

 Island . . ." [just south of New South Wales-Vic- 

 toria border]. There are specific literature reports 

 from Victoria (McCoy 1888; Serventy 1941b) and 

 Tasmania (Lord 1927), as well as from New South 

 Wales. Except for one specimen from Norfolk 

 Island (AMS 1.10751), all the material we have 

 examined has come from New South Wales (from 

 north to south: Macleay River, Broughton Island 

 off Port Stephens, Laurieton, New Castle, Sydney, 

 Woolongong). Sherrin (1886) and others have 

 reported Sarda from New Zealand, but it seems 



Table 18.— Morphometric characters of Sarda australis. First 

 set of numbers are measurements expressed in thousandths of 

 fork length, second set as thousandths of head length. 



likely that these reports were based on misiden- 

 tified specimens of Allothunnus fallai which was 

 not described until 1948. 



Sarda chiliensis (Cuvier) 



Two subspecies of S. chiliensis are recognized: S. 

 c. chiliensis (Cuvier) for the southeastern Pacific 

 population and S. c. lineolata (Girard) for the 

 northeastern Pacific population. 



Sarda chiliensis chiliensis (Cuvier) 



Pelamys chiliensis Cuvier in Cuvier and Valen- 

 ciennes 1831:163 (original description; Val- 

 paraiso, Chile). 



Pelamys chilensis. Giinther 1860:368 (in part; 

 description). 



Sarda chilensis. Starks 1906:784 (Callao, Peru). 

 Meek and Hildebrand 1923:318-319 (in 

 part; description; Peru). Hildebrand 

 1946:372-374 (description; 13 Peruvian 



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