NUMBER 367 43 EXOCOETIDAE (not including Hemiramphidae) There are about eight genera and perhaps as many as 100 species-group taxa of flyingfishes, of which the Indo-pacific forms are most poorly known systematically. The family is circumglobally distributed and the species are epipelagic and, in general, widely distributed. The young are often taken inshore. Possibly five genera and 15 species occur nonmarginally on the Pacific Plate. FLSTULARIIDAE The cornetfishes consist of a single, circumglobally distributed genus, Fistularia, and four species. The species are free swimming and attain a maximum length of 1-2 m. Fritzsche (1976) revised Fistularia and presented a distribution map for the species. One species is restricted to the tropical eastern Pacific and one to the tropical Atlantic (both sides). One species occurs from the east African coast to the tropical coasts of the eastern Pacific. The fourth species, F. petimba, is almost circumglobal and has an Hawaiian exception distribution: both sides of the tropical Atlantic; Indo-west Pacific from Madagascar to Japan, Philippines, and Australia; and Hawaiian Islands (only nonmarginal Pacific Plate occurrence). Although Fistularia is not present in the Mediterranean, it is reported from the Miocene of that region (Arambourg, 1925). FORMICIDAE (= APOLECTIDAE) There is but a single, monotypic genus in the Formicidae, Apolectus (= Formio Parastromateus), a free-swimming fish probably not attaining more than 300 mm TL, but occasionally stated to reach 600 mm TL. Witzell (1978, fig. 8) reported on the distribution of Apolectus, which extends from eastern Africa eastward to Japan, Philippines, and eastern Australia. Additionally, Zama and Fujita (1977) give citations to the occurrence of Apolectus in the Bonin, or Ogasawara, Islands, adjacent to the margin of the Pacific Plate, and Dor (1970), reported it from the Red Sea. Reports of the occurrence of Apolectus in Hawaii all appear to emanate from Matsubara (1955565). Matsubara's listing is probably in error (see also Menidae). I know of no other nonmarginal Pacific Plate record for Apolectus. Gerreidae The mojarras are a family of small, free-swimming, epibenthic fishes (maximum size about 400 mm TL) that are poorly known taxonomically. There are about six genera and perhaps 40 species. The species are primarily marine but often enter brackish or freshwater, and are found on the warm coasts of all oceans; however, they are reported nonmarginally from the Pacific Plate only from the Eastern Caroline, Gilbert, Ellice, and Marshall islands (Fowler, 1928, 1931, 1934). These records probably involve only species of Genes. Randall (1973) discounts Jordan and Seale's (1906) report of Genes argyreus (as Xystaema argyreum) from Tahiti. GLNGLYMOSTOMATIDAE This family is discussed under the Orectolobidae. GIRELLIDAE The girellidae are a small family containing one or two genera and about 15 species of moderate-sized fishes (to about 625 mm TL and 8 kg) that are absent from the Pacific Plate. These fishes are questionably included here as a warm-water group. The family is antiequatorially distributed, and occurs on the coasts of Japan, China, southern Australia (as far north as southern Queensland), Lord Howe and Norfolk islands, New Zealand, Easter Island, California to, and including, the Gulf of California, Galapagos, Chile and its offshore islands, Peru, and the Cape Verde and Canary islands in the eastern Atlantic (D.F. Hoese, in litt). Lee and Chang (1981) reported