Family GIRELLIDAE

Girella cyanea from New South Wales

© Copyright D.F. Hoese

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Introduction

As recognised here, the family contains two genera Girella and Graus. We follow Johnson (1984) and Johnson & Fritsche (1989) in treating the family (along with the Scorpididae and Microcanthidae) as separate from the Kyphosidae. Gosline (1985) reviewed the early classification of the groups. Nelson (2006) recognised the group as a subfamily (Girellinae) of the Kyphosidae. Australian workers have sometimes treated them as families (Gomon 2008) or as subfamilies (Hoese et al (2006). Neira et al. (1997) described larvae of the groups recognising them as separate families. Molecular studies (Yagishita et al. 2002) did not find evidence for a single large Kyphosidae. Consequently we revert here to the previous classification pending further studies.

Currently five species of Girella are known from Australia. Eleven other species of Girella are known mainly from subtropical and temperate regions of the North-west and North-east Pacific, South-east Pacific and eastern Atlantic. Grauss is found in waters from Peru to Chile.

General References

Gomon, M.F. 2008. Families Monodactylidae, Arripidae, Kyphosidae, Girellidae, Microcanthidae, Scorpididae. pp. 596-607 in Gomon, M.F., Bray, D.J. & Kuiter, R.H. (eds). Fishes of Australia's Southern Coast. Sydney : Reed New Holland 928 pp.

Gosline, W. 1985. Relationships among some relatively deep-bodied percoid fish groups. Japanese Journal of Ichthyology 31(4): 351-357

Hoese, D.F. & Bray, D.J. 2006. Family Kyphosidae. pp. 1317-1327 in Hoese, D.F., Bray, D.J., Paxton, J.R. & Allen, G.R. Fishes. In, Beesley, P.L. & Wells, A. (eds) Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Vol. 35. Volume 35 Australia : ABRS & CSIRO Publishing Parts 1-3, 2178 pp.

Johnson, G.D. 1984. Percoidei: development and relationships. pp. 464-498 figs 254-264 in Moser, H.G. et al. (eds). Ontogeny and Systematics of Fishes. American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. Special Publication 1: 1-760

Johnson, G.D. & Fritzsche, R.A. 1989. Graus nigra, an omnivorous girellid, with comparative osteology and comments on relationships of the Girellidae (Pisces: Perciformes). Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 141: 1-27

Neira, F.J. Miskiewicz, A.G. & Bruce, B.D. 1997. Larvae of five fish families with pattern 10 of the ramus lateralis accessorius nerve (Arripidae, Girellidae, Kyphosidae, Microcanthidae and Scorpididae): relevance to relationships. Bulletin of Marine Science 60(1): 117-138

Nelson, J.S. 2006. Fishes of the World. Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 601 pp.

Yagishita, N., Kobayashi, T. & Nakabo, T. 2002. Review of monophyly of the Kyphosidae (sensu Nelson, 1994), inferred from the mitochondrial ND2 gene. Ichthyological Research 49(2): 103-108

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