Fla— Penrith and Talbot, 1973 (morphometry of 

 two specimens taken northwest of Capetown in the 

 southeastern Atlantic). — Wise and Davis, 1973:20 

 (comments on meaning of Japanese longline data 

 regarding this species). 



A key to all istiophorid species was presented by 

 Robins and de Sylva (1960) based on all species 

 known at that time. Since then Tetrapturus pfluegeri 

 was described and T. georgei resurrected. De Sylva 

 (1974) in his summary of information for Tetrapturus 

 belone has presented a revised and inclusive key to all 

 species of Tetrapturus. 



1.22 Taxonomic status 



The taxonomic status of T. pfluegeri is clear insofar 

 as the juveniles and adults are easily distinguished 

 from all other billfishes. Its distinctive morphology es- 

 tablishes its species status. Only Peronaci (1966) 

 among recent writers has failed to perceive its distinc- 

 tiveness. Virtually all morphometric data available on 

 pfluegeri are from the western Atlantic and especially 

 Florida. There is no basis for commentary on 

 geographic variation except that manuscript data on 

 two specimens from South Africa from Penrith and 

 Talbot (1973), kindly provided by M. J. Penrith, show 

 perfect agreement with Florida specimens of com- 

 parable size from the opposite end of the range of the 

 species. This plus experience with related species 

 strongly suggests that we should not expect noteworthy 

 geographic variation in the species. This does not 

 mean that less obvious but measurable differences 

 might not exist. 



1.23 Subspecies 



No subspecies are recognized. 



1.24 Standard common names and ver- 

 nacular names 



The standard name for the species (Bailey et al., 

 1970) is longbill spearfish, the name originally at- 

 tributed to it by its describers. It is known by anglers 

 that recognize it by this name or simply as spearfish. 

 The Japanese name is Kuchinaga-furai (see Howard 

 and Ueyanagi, 1963) or Kuchinagufurai (Wise and 

 Davis, 1973:2). The Soviet literature terms it malyi 

 kop'enosets. Other names are those loosely applied to 

 any of the billfishes. 



1.3 Morphology 



Fin rays. — T. pfluegeri has a high dorsal spine count 

 45-53, usually 48-51. Care must be taken to count the 

 last one or two which may be imbedded in the skin 

 anterior to the second dorsal fin in large adults. No 

 other Atlantic istiophorid has such a high count. 

 There are usually 6 (rarely 7) second dorsal and usual- 

 ly 7 (occasionally 6 and rarely 8) second anal rays. 

 There are 12-18 (usually 13-10) elements in the first 



anal fin. Pectoral rays vary from 17 to 20, but are most 

 frequently 19. Variation in fin ray counts may be seen 

 by reference to Table 1, which is based on data from 

 Robins and de Sylva (1963), supplemented with data 

 reported for the first time in Tables 2 and 3. 



Vertebrae. — As with all species of Tetrapturus there 

 are always 24 vertebrae divided equally between 

 precaudal and caudal, the division sharply defined 

 (see Nakamura et al., 1968, Fig. 7). The vertebral 

 column of pfluegeri is illustrated by Ueyanagi and 

 Watanabe (1965:pl. 3a, b). 



Fins. — The spinous dorsal fin is high throughout in 

 small juveniles tapering sharply downward at the last 

 several elements. A slight dip forms behind the 

 anterior lobe in larger juveniles, but the posterior part 

 of the fin never exceeds the height of the anterior lobe 

 as it does for example in Istiophorus. In adults the 

 height of the fin fades away from the anterior lobe but 

 is higher than in T. albidus and notably higher than in 

 species of Makaira nearly to its end. Apparently the 

 posterior section of the fin ceases to grow at a body 

 length less than 900 mm. This can easily be seen in 

 Robins and de Sylva (1960:Fig. 2, lowermost section). 

 The pectoral fin is positively allometric being short 

 (12-14% of body length) in juveniles and long (20-22% 

 of body length) in adults. The transition is sharp and 

 specimens of about 1,000- and 1,300-mm body length 

 could easily be thought to be separate species on this 

 basis. 



The first anal fin is low, decidedly less than the 

 body height at that point and pointed. 



Bill. — The bill, as with all species of Tetrapturus, is 

 proportionally longest in juveniles, shorter in adults. 

 The name longbill spearfish was used to contrast this 

 species from its closest allies, the Mediterranean 

 spearfish, T belone, and the shortbill spearfish, T. 

 angustirostris, both of which are short snouted. The 

 bill in T. pfluegeri is shorter than that of the white 

 marlin, T. albidus, or the sailfish, Istiophorus 

 platypterus. 



Dorsal profile. — The profile is straight from the base 

 of the bill to the origin of the dorsal fin; this species 

 thus lacks the humped nape of T. albidus. 



Color. — The color is dark bluish black above, silvery 

 on the sides, and whitish below; the membrane of the 

 spinous dorsal fin is bright blue without dark spots. 

 Vertical barring is never prominent though pale bars 

 are usually visible when a specimen is freshly caught. 

 Juveniles have a dark blotch from the base of the 16th 

 to the 17th dorsal spines. 



There has been no published report on 

 cytomorphology or protein specificity and only 

 scattered information on internal morphology. 

 Nakamura et al. (1968) report generally on the inter- 





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