ABSTRACT
The triglid fishes are found in all temperate and tropical seas. A few species are used for food though most are rarely caught, are small and are benthic, ranging in depth from coastal waters to 500 m along continental shelves and around islands, reefs, and sea mounts. Historically triglids were combined with peristediids in several combinations usually as separate subfamilies (Nelson 1994). Immamura (1996) conclusively showed that they were separate families within the scorpaeniform suborder Platycephaloidei. Richards & Jones (2002) in a cladistic analysis recognized nine genera in the family with only the genera Prionotus and Bellator in the tribe Prionotini found on both sides of the American continents. Richards & Miller (2003) treated the adults in the western central North Atlantic and recognize 15 Prionotus and 4 Bellator.
