Morocco 



New Zealand 



Norway 



Papua New 

 Guinea 



Peru 



Phillipine Is- 

 lands 



Portugal 



Sarawak 

 Seychelles 

 Somalia (Mi- 



jurtein coast) 

 South Africa 

 Spain 



Spanish 

 Morocco 



Sri Lanka 

 (Ceylon) 



Sweden 



Taiwan 



Thailand 



Turkey 



Union of South 

 Africa 



Union of Soviet 

 Socialist Re- 

 public 



United King- 

 dom 



Unites States 



Venezuela 

 Yugoslavia 



International 

 organization 



Food and Agri- Frigate tuna, Auxides, Melvas 

 culture Organi- 

 zation of the 

 United Nations (FAO) 



International Frigate tuna, Auxide, Melva 

 Commission 

 for the Conserva- 

 tion of Atlantic 

 Tunas (ICC AT) 



Jones (1963), Uchida (1963), Instituto del Mar del 

 Peru (see footnote 4), FAO (1976), and Klawe (1977) pro- 

 vided the following common and vernacular names of A. 

 rochei = A. tapeinosoma = A. thynnoides = A. maru. 



Country Common and vernacular names 



Australia Long corseletted frigate mackerel, 



Maru frigate mackerel 



Melva 

 Frigate tuna 

 Auxis 

 Deho 



Melva, Macarela 



Frigate mackerel, Tunungan, Man- 

 ko, Mangki) (Marinao, Samal, Vis- 

 aya. and Tao Sug) 



Gayado, Judea, Serra, Cachorra, Be- 

 nito 



Tongkol 



Bonite folle 



Tubani (Somali) 



Frigate mackerel 



Melva, Visol, Melvara, Bis, Benito 



del Norte, Macaela 

 Melva 



Frigate mackerel, Rogodwa 



(Sinhalese), Alagoduwa 

 Auxide 

 Chien yu 

 PlaO 

 (jobene 

 Frigate mackerel. Bee hoo 



Auksida, Makrelevyi tunets 



Plain bonito 



Frigate mackerel. Bullet mackerel. 



Boo hoo, Frigate tuna 

 Cabana negra 

 Trupac, Tunjcic, Rumbac 



Ecuador 

 India: 

 Malayalam 

 (North) 



Malayalam 

 (South) 



Tamil 



Japan 



Peru 



Union of Soviet 

 Socialist Re- 

 public 



United States 



International 

 organization 



FAO 

 ICCAT 



Betellita 



Kuttichoera (means small tuna and 

 generally applied to A. thazard 

 and young of £. af finis) 



Urulan-choora (means rounded tuna 

 and applied to A. thazard also from 

 which this species is not generally 

 distinguished) 



Eli-choorai (means ratlike tuna), 

 Kutteli-choorai (means small rat- 

 like tuna) 



Marusoda, Marusodakatsuo. Maruga- 

 tsuwo, Marumejika, Magatsuwo, 

 Manba, Mandara, Chiboh, Dain- 

 anpo, Nodoguro, Rohsoku, Subota, 

 Uzawa. Maiika, Soku, Soda, Subo. 

 (Marumedika, Marugatsuo, Maga- 

 tsuo, and Dainanbo are variations 

 in spelling of some of the above 

 names.) Other names mentioned by 

 Rosa (1950) are Kogatsuo, Kukarai, 

 Kobukura 



Melva, Fragata 



Skumbrievvi tunets, Auksida 



Bullet mackerel. Bullet tuna 



Bullet tuna 

 Bullet tuna 



To avoid confusion throughout the remainder of this 

 paper, A. rochei will be used instead of A. tapeinosoma, 

 A. thynnoides, or A. maru to describe the long-corse- 

 letted form. For the short-corseletted form, A. thazard 

 will be used, but there is considerable confusion in the 

 literature because several authors used thazard in the 

 belief that there was only a single worldwide sijecies of 

 Auxis (Fraser-Brunner 1950; Rivas 1951). This usage 

 must be translated into Auxis spp. where reference is 

 made to the Pacific forms and into A. rochei in the Atlan- 

 tic based on Fitch and Roedel's (1963) interpretation or 

 Auxis spp. based on Richards and Randall's (1967) docu- 

 mentation of A. thazard in the Atlantic. 



1.3 Morphology 



1.31 External morphology 



The fin ray counts, together with the gill raker and 

 vertebral counts, are given for A. thazard and A. rochei 

 in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. It should be noted that 

 some investigators did not separate the two species of 

 Auxis at the time the meristic counts were made and, 

 therefore, their counts have not been included. 



One of the sources of confusion in identifying Auxis to 



