ABSTRACT
The Beloniformes (or Synentognathi) is an order of atherinomorph fishes containing two suborders, five families, 37 genera, and at least 220 species (Rosen and Parenti 1981; Collette et al. 1984). Species of Adrianichthyoidei are restricted to Asian fresh and/or brackish waters. Representatives of all four families of Exocoetoidei are found in the west central Atlantic: Belonidae-4 genera, 7 species; Exocoetidae-7 genera, 15 species; Hemiramphidae-5 genera, 9 species; and Scomberesocidae -1 genus, 1 species (Carpenter 2003a). Features common to the suborder Exocoetoidei include dorsal and anal fins on the rear half of the body, abdominal pelvic fins with six soft rays, no fin spines, lateral line running along the ventral edge of the body, an open nasal pit, and lower pharyngeal bones fused into a triangular plate (leading to the name Synentognathi). Recent molecular research (Lovejoy 2000) indicates a different grouping of genera than the classic four families recognized here, e.g. sauries with Belone and Petalichthys of the Belonidae, Zenarchopterinae with other needlefishes rather than the rest of the Hemiramphidae, etc. Most species of the four families are tropical epipelagic marine fishes, but several genera of Belonidae and Hemiramphidae are restricted to freshwaters and a few other genera contain estuarine and freshwater as well as marine species.
