COLLETTE and RUSSO: SPANISH MACKERELS 



Description. — Intestine with two folds and three 

 limbs (Fig. 3c). Spines in first dorsal fin 15-18, 

 usually 17 (Table 9); second dorsal fin rays 15- 



20, usually 17 or 18 (Table 10); dorsal finlets 

 8-11, usually 9 or 10 (Table 10); anal fin rays 16- 



21, usually 18 or 19 (Table 11); anal finlets 7-12, 

 usually 9 or 10 (Table 11); pectoral fin rays 21-24, 

 usually 22 or 23 (Table 12). Precaudal vertebrae 

 19 or 20, usually 20 (Table 6); caudal verte- 

 brae 23-27, usually 24 or 25 (Table 7); total 

 vertebrae 42-46, usually 44 or 45 (Table 8). Gill 

 rakers on first arch (0-2) + (1-8)= 1-8, usually 

 (0-1) +(3-4) = 3-5 (Table 5). Morphometric char- 

 acters given in Table 15. 



Size. — Maximum size 230 cm FL and 59 kg; 

 commonly 60-120 cm (Lewis 1981). The all-tackle 

 angling record is a 44.9 kg fish taken at Scott- 

 burgh, Natal, South Africa, in 1982. Sexual ma- 

 turity is attained at a length of 70-80 cm FL in 

 Madagascar (Prado 1970), Papua New Guinea 

 (Lewis et al. 1974), and Fiji (Lewis et al. 1983), 

 but not until 90-100 cm in South Africa (van der 

 Elst 1981). Females attain larger sizes than males 

 (Prado 1970; Lewis et al. 1974, 1983). 



Color pattern. — Munro (1943:75) presented a 

 good description of Australian specimens. Sides 

 pale silver gray marked with transverse vertical 

 bars of a darker gray. Bars narrow and slightly 

 wavy, sometimes breaking up into spots ventral- 

 ly. Bars number 40-50 in adults but are usually 

 fewer than 20 in juveniles up to 450 mm FL. 

 Munro reported the cranial regions and upper 

 regions of the back to be mottled with iridescent 

 blue and green. Cheeks, lower jaw, and belly 

 silvery white. First dorsal fin bright blue rapidly 

 fading to blackish blue. Pectoral fin light grey 

 turning to blackish blue. Caudal fin lobes, second 

 dorsal, anal, and dorsal and anal finlets pale 

 grayish white turning to dark gray. Juveniles 

 have the anterior membranes of the first dorsal 

 jet black contrasting with pure white posteriorly 

 (Munro 1943:pl. 8, fig. 3). 



There is an excellent illustration of an adult S. 

 commerson from Japan in Kishinouye (1923:pl. 

 22), of an adult (968 mm FL, here reproduced as 

 Figure 52), and a juvenile (368 mm) from Austra- 

 lia in Munro (1943), and of an adult from India in 

 Jones and Silas (1962:fig. 2). There are color 

 paintings in La Monte (1952:pl. 19) and Grant 

 (1982:627) and color photographs of a specimen 



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