PH. GREENWOOD 



The present contribution, it is hoped, will play some part in 

 rewakening an interest in a phylogenetically based taxonomy 

 of Regan's 'cirrhitiform percoids', and of their interrelation- 

 ships within, or perhaps outside, the Percoidei. Regan (1911) 

 gave no formal suprafamilial ranking to his 'cirrhitiforms', 

 but in some recent classifications (Nelson, 1994) the group 

 has been raised to a superfamily, the Cirrhitoidea. The use of 

 the terms 'cirrhitoid' and 'cirrhitoids' in this paper is thus to 

 be interpreted as a reference to the superfamily and not to the 

 suborder suggested for these fishes on p. 9. 



METHODS AND MATERIALS 



Species of the percoid families Serranidae and Centropomi- 

 dae served as outgroup representatives of basal members of 

 the Percoidei. The condition and composition of the sterno- 

 hyoideus muscles, and the morphology of the urohyal in these 

 taxa were taken to represent the plesiomorphic percoid 

 conditions. 



Wherever possible, dry skeletal preparations and alizarin 

 transparencies were examined, as were radiographs and 

 dissections of preserved specimens. 



Study material. The symbols used in the following list are: 

 D. Sternohyoid muscle dissected and the urohyal removed or 

 examined in situ; X. Radiographed; S. Dry skeletal material 

 examined; an asterisk following a binomen indicates that this 

 name appears on the box housing the skeleton, and that its 

 specific identity could not be checked on the basis of the 

 characters preserved. 



The familial grouping used in the list is that resulting from 

 the conclusions reached in this paper, and thus differs in some 

 respects from the classifications of Gill (1862) and Regan 

 (1911), and in some cases that of later authors (see p. 5 

 relating to the species 'bergf and 'gayi' previously placed in 

 the genus Cheilodactylus and in the family Cheilodactylidae). 



Institutional abbreviations are: BMNH, The Natural His- 

 tory Museum, London; DIFS, The Department of Ichthyol- 

 ogy and Fisheries Science, Rhodes University, South Africa; 

 RUSI, J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology, South Africa; 

 SAM, South African Museum, Cape Town. 



Study material. 

 (i) Outgroups. 



Centropomidae; Glaucosomatidae; Ambassidae: The osteo- 

 logical and other material listed in Greenwood (1976). 



Serranidae: as above, together with Epinephalus alexandri- 

 nus BMNH 1867.2.1: 69-72; (D). 



(ii) Cirrhitoid fishes. 



Aplodactylidae: Aplodactylus punctatus * (type species of 



the genus): BMNH 1873.4.3: 157 (S). 



A. lophodon: BMNH 1914.8.20: 214 (D). 

 Cheilodactylidae: Cheilodactylus fasciatus (type species of 



the genus): 3 specimens, DIFS unregistered (D). 



C. fuscus: 1 specimen, DIFS unregistered (D). 



C. pixi: 6 specimens, DIFS unregistered (D). 



2 specimens, DIFS unregistered (S). 



4 'paperfish' larvae, 44-50 mm standard length, 



RUSI 19842 (D). 



1 'paperfish' larva, 44 mm standard length, RUSI 



19842 (S). 



C. zonatus: BMNH 1907.12.23: 238 (S). 



Chirodactylus brachydactylus: 3 specimens, DIFS 



unregistered (D). 



2 specimens, DIFS unregistered (S). 



2 'paperfish' larvae, 33 & 38 mm standard length. 



RUSI, unregistered (D). 



C. grandis: 1 'paperfish' larva, 57 mm standard 



length. RUSI 18404 (D). 



Dactylophora nigricans*: BMNH 1869.2.24:8 (S). 

 Chironemidae: Chironemus marmoratus*: BMNH 



1871.3.29: 28 (S). 



Chironemus marmoratus: BMNH 1861.11.7: 6 (D). 

 Cirrhitidae: Amblycirrhitus pinos: 2 alizarin preparations 



ex BMNH 1976.7.14: 453-7 (S). 



Amblycirrhitus pinos: BMNH 1984.7.16: 96 (D). 



Cirrhitus maculatus*: BMNH unregistered (S). 



Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus: RUSI 11658; BMNH 



1929.9.20: 8 (D). 



Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus: BMNH 1908.3.23: 77-79 



(X). 



Cyprinocirrhites polyactis: RUSI 12339 (D). 



Gymnocirrhites arcatus (type species of the 



genus):BMNH 1965.12.20: 10(D). 



Gymnocirrhites arcatus*: BMNH unregistered, col- 

 lected by Richardson (S). 



Gymnocirrhites arcatus: BMNH 1865.3.2: 82-83 (X). 



Oxycirrhites typus (type species of the genus): 



BMNH 1929.6.12: 2(D). 



Paracirrhites forsteri: BMNH 1852.9.13: 119 (S) 



Paracirrhites forsteri: BMNH 1969.7.16: 28-32; one 



specimen(D). 

 Latridae: Acantholatris bergi BMNH 1936.18.26: 439 (D) 



&(X). 



Acantholatris gayi: BMNH 1879.5.14: 278; 



1890.2.26: 49 (D) & (X). 



Acantholatris monodactylus (type species of the 



genus): BMNH 1960.1.8: 6-13; one (D), all (X). 



Acantholatris monodactylus: BMNH unregistered, 



ex Gough Isl.; 2 specimens, both (S). 



Acantholatris monodactylus: RUSI 33484; 33485; 



33624 (D). 



Latridopsis ciliaris (type species of the genus): 



BMNH 1872.7.1: 32 (S). 



Latridopsis ciliaris: BMNH 1873.12.13: 55 (D) & 



(X). 



Latris lineata: BMNH 1855.9.19: 124 (D). 



Latris lineata: SAM 22623 (D). 



Mendosoma lineatum (type species of the genus): 



BMNH 1960.1.8: 14-21; one (D), all (X). 



Mendosoma lineatum: RUSI 33613; 33625 (D). 



Nemadactylus macropterus: BMNH 1855.9.19: 314 



(X). 



Nemadactylus macropterus: BMNH 1872.7.1: 21 



(D) & (X). 



Urohyal morphology and the suprageneric 

 classification of cirrhitoid fishes, particularly the 

 genus Acantholatris and species currently referred 

 to the genus Nemadactylus 



Within the cirrhitoid fishes, five morphologically distinct 

 types of urohyal can be recognised (Figs 1 & 2). Since each 



