Figure 1.— Auxia t/uuard (upper photo) from the eastern Pacific, collected at Morgan Bank, Baja California, and A. rochei (lower 

 photo) from near Santa Catalina Island. Calif. (Fitch and Roedel 196.'!) 



Species — Auxis rochei (Risso) 1810 



The description of A. rochei (Fig. 1, lower photo) is 

 from Jones (1958), who originally referred to the 

 specimen as A. tapeinosoma. 



"Body robust, rounded, almost circular in cross- 

 section. Dorsal outline moderately tuid evenly curved. 

 Ventral outline evenly curved when fresh but slightly 

 flattened abdominally after preservation in formalin. 



"Height 5.38 in sttmdard and 5.55 in furcal [= fork] 

 length. Head 3.77 in standard and 3.88 in furcal length. 

 Snout, pointed 3.9 in the head, longer than eye diam- 

 eter. Eye 4.91 in the head, 1.27 in the snout, 1.27 in the 

 almost flattened interorbital space. Mouth moderate, 

 oblique, end of maxillary reaching vertical from anterior 

 margin of eye. Jaws nearly equal, the lower jaw pro- 

 jecting almost imperceptibly beyond the upper. Teeth 



small, pointed in a single row on both jaws, none on 

 palate. Branchiostegals 7. Gill rakers long and slender, 

 45 in first gill arch. 



"Two dorsal fins separated by interspace slightly 

 shorter than head length. First dorsal roughly triangular 

 with 10 spines, anterior spine longest. Second dorsal 

 small with 13 rays. Dorsal finlets 8. Anal fin small, with 

 2 spines, 11 rays. Anal finlets 7. Pectorals roughly tri- 

 angular, reaching vertical from the base of first ray of 

 first dorsal. Ventral thoracic, axillairy scales equal in 

 length to ventrals. 



"Body naked except for the corselet of scales which 

 taper gradually to 9-10 irregular scale rows at vertical 

 through second dorsal and end as a narrow line at ver- 

 tical below second dorsal finlet. Scales large and imbri- 

 cated above pectoral base. Caudal peduncle slender with 

 feebly developed lateral keels. Lateral line somewhat un- 

 dulating and without a distinct arch." 



