UBS and WISNER: REVISION OK THE SAURIES 



The earliest synonym, Sayris, was proposed by 

 Rafinesque 1I8IO1, with the statement: "Cosris- 

 l)(inde al genere Scombresox di Lacepede, il di cui 

 Home essendo formate dall'unione di due altri 

 nomi generici e talmente contra la leggi della 

 nomenclatura zoologica, . . . ." Since Sayris was 

 iihviously proposed as a replacement name for 

 Scomberesox, it takes, according to Article 67 (i) of 

 the International Code, the same type-species, 

 namely Scomberesox camperii Lacepede. The 

 type-species has been designated (Jordan and 

 Evermann 1896) as Sayris "reciirvirostra = cam- 

 peri," obviously on the basis of the original indica- 

 tion of Sayris recurvirostra as a replacement name 

 for S. camperii. This type of designation was re- 

 peated by Jordan (1917). Jordan et al. ( 1930) gave 

 the type as "S. recurvirostra Rafinesque = Esox 

 saurus Walbaum," but Camperii is not an objec- 

 tive synonym of saurus. 



Gramminocotus Costa ( 1862) is clearly a subjec- 

 tive synonym of Scow beresox . The type-species, by 

 monotypy, is G. bicolor, an obvious synonym of 

 Scomberesox saurus saurus. The statement by 

 Jordan et al. ( 1930) that Grammiconotus is "said 

 to lack the air bladder" seems to have no basis 

 other than the erroneously indicated lack of the 

 gas bladder as a character of Scomberesox in the 

 Mediterranean, from which the 40 mm type of G. 

 bicolor came. Various authors have reported on 

 the presence or absence of a gas bladder in S. 

 saurus from the Mediterranean. Valenciennes 

 (1846) based S.ffondeto?;; on the beliefthat it had 

 no gas bladder; Giinther (1866:258) and Moreau 

 (1881) accepted this action. Liitken (1880) and 

 subsequent authors accepted the presence of the 

 bladder, but Supino ( 1935) failed to find it. Scordia 

 (1936, 1938) found it in specimens from Messina 

 and Naples. Further supporting its presence, En- 

 rico Tortonese'-' stated: "Personally, I believe it is 

 present, as I have found it in all the dissected 

 specimens from Nice and Genoa. Its walls are thin 

 and easily broken; this may perhaps explain why 

 it was sometimes overlooked." One of us (Wisner) 

 hasfound the gas bladder in a 197 mm SLsubadult 

 from the Straits of Messina, as has N. B. Mar- 

 shall'-". 



There was also no basis for the indication (Jor- 



" Enrico Tortonese, Director, Museo Civico di Storia Natu- 

 relle. 16121 Genova. Via Brigala Liguria N. 9, Italy, pers. com- 

 mun. 8 July 1968. 



'^N.B. Marshall. Curator of Fishe.s. British Museum i Natural 

 History '. Cromwell Road, London SW7, England, pers. commun 

 21 .June 1968. 



dan 1921) that the genus Grammiconotus lacks a 

 beak (it had not yet elongated in Costa's type, 

 "Long. coip. millim. 40"). The generic recognition 

 by Jordan and by Golvan (1962, 1965) was an 

 anachronism. 



JUSTIFICATION OF 

 SUBSPECIFIC SEPARATION 



Parin ( 1968a) reported differences in the num- 

 bers of gill rakers of Scomberesox saurus between 

 7 specimens from the North Atlantic and Mediter- 

 ranean (average 40.75) and 64 specimens from the 

 Southern Hemisphere (average 44.67). On this 

 rather limited basis he concluded that the two 

 populations may be separable, at least at the sub- 

 specific level, and, if so, the southern subspecies 

 should be named "S. saurus scombroides 

 (Richardson)." Parin also stated: "There are no 

 significant morphological differences between 

 populations inhabiting southern regions of the At- 

 lantic, Indian and Pacific oceans." We concur in 

 this latter statement and include populations 

 from the Northern Hemisphere (not included by 

 Parin, perhaps due to limited material, seven 

 specimens). Furthermore, we agree with Parin 

 that the populations of the two hemispheres may 

 be separable as subspecies and that the name 

 Scomber-esox sau7-us scombroides (Richardson 

 1842) is applicable to the Southern Hemisphere 

 form. 



While we are aware of the highly subjective 

 criteria for subspecific separations, and despite 

 the extensive overlap in counts of gill rakers be- 

 tween populations of the two hemispheres (Table 

 7), we favor the distinction of the two populations 

 as subspecies. We base this action both on proba- 

 bly highly significant statistical differences (un- 

 tested) in numbers of rakers and on the presently 

 known distribution of the genus (see below). We 

 cannot conceive of any recent intermingling 

 across the equatorial region of the Atlantic Ocean, 

 at least since the glacial period; the species does 

 not occur in the North Pacific, and, presumably, 

 the northern Indian Ocean is too warm for it. 



The statistical reasoning on which we base sub- 

 specific distinction involves both a method of 

 graphical analysis of variation (Hubbs and Perl- 

 mutter 1942, revised by Hubbs and Hubbs 1953) 

 (Figure 6) and a value, "coefficient of difference 

 (CD.)," from Mayretal.( 1953); this latter value is 

 derived by dividing the difference between means 

 bv the sum of their standard deviations. 



539 



