COLLETTE and RUSSO: SPANISH MACKERELS 



a 



FIGURE 37. — Vertebra bearing first closed haemal arch in left lateral view (middle vertebra of each set of three). Vertebrae num- 

 bered from anterior, a. Scomberomorus cavalla, Chesapeake Bay, 672 mm FL, 1.5 x . b. Scomberomorus niphonius, Japan, 683 

 mm FL, 1.5 x . c. Acanthocybium solandri, Revillagigedos Is., 1,068 mm FL, 1 x . d. Grammatorcynus bilineatus, Queensland, 521 

 mm FL, 1.5 x . 



muscular Bones) attach to the distal ends of the 

 parapophyses and arches and extend posteriorly 

 to the last precaudal vertebra. Symmetrically 

 with the neural arches and spines on the caudal 

 vertebrae, the haemal arches and spines bend 

 posteriorly at the caudal peduncle and then 

 merge into the caudal complex. 



Haemapophyses include pre- and postzygapo- 

 physes but their relative positions are different 

 from those of the neurapophyses, and they do not 

 overlap. The first haemal postzygapophyses arise 

 posteroventrally from the 6th-7th centrum in 

 Grammatorcynus, the 6th-8th in Scomberomo- 

 rus, and the 9th-10th in Acanthocybium, and 

 they reach their maximum length at about the 

 junction of the precaudal and caudal vertebrae 



(Fig. 38). The haemal postzygapophyses fuse with 

 the haemal spine or disappear in the caudal 

 peduncle region. 



The haemal prezygapophyses arise from the 

 anterior base of the haemal arches on the 8th- 

 11th vertebra in Grammatorcynus, the 10th-22d 

 in Scomberomorus, and the 23d-25th in Acan- 

 thocybium. The most anteriorly located prezyga- 

 pophyses in Scomberomorus are in S. cavalla, on 

 the 10th-12th vertebra. The most posteriorly lo- 

 cated are in S. sinensis (22d), S. queenslandicus 

 (18th-20th), S. multiradiatus (18th-19th), and S. 

 maculatus (17th-20th). The other 15 species have 

 the first haemal prezygapophyses on the 13th- 

 19th vertebra. The data from Devaraj (1977) 

 for the four Indian species fall in the interme- 



597 



