ABSTRACT
Recognition of this family, previously included in the Percichthyidae (Gosline, 1966), follows Johnson (1984) and Heemstra (1986). Although there is no evidence supporting monophyly of this group, this systematic arrangement is more reasonable than recognizing a large Percichthyidae of unrelated genera (Johnson, 1984, 1993). The genera Howella, Polyprion, and Symphysanodon, provisionally placed within Acropomatidae by Nelson (1994), are recognized in this chapter in Howellidae, Polyprionidae, and Symphysanodontidae, respectively, following Fourmanoir (1981), Roberts (1993), and Nelson et al. (in press). The definition of the family Acropomatidae is still problematic. Recently, Heemstra & Yamanoue (2003) placed Bathysphyraenops and Scombrops within the Acropomatidae. However, Eschmeyer (2003) maintains Bathysphyraenops in Percichthyidae, and Gon (2003) provisionally placed it in Epigonidae. Scombrops is usually classed in its own family, Scombropidae (Johnson, 1986; Heemstra, 1986; Eschmeyer, 2003).
