Odacidae

The Odacidae are a small family of ray-finned fishes commonly known as cales and weed whitings, formerly classified within the order Perciformes. They are related to the much larger families of the wrasses and parrotfish.^[2] More recent workers have classified this family within the order Labriformes, alongside the wrasses and parrotfishes, within the clade Percomorpha.^[3]

Odacidae
Greenbone (Odax pullus)
Rainbow cale (Heteroscarus acroptilus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Labriformes
Suborder:	Labroidei
Family:	Odacidae Günther, 1861
Genera[1]
See text

Odacids are found in coastal waters off Southern Australia and New Zealand. They include species that feed on small invertebrates, as well as herbivorous grazers, some of which are able to feed on chemically unpleasant varieties of kelp otherwise unpalatable to fish.^[2]

Genera

The following genera are classified in the family Odacidae:^[4]

• Haletta Whitley, 1947
• Heteroscarus Castelnau, 1872
• Neoodax Castelnau, 1875
• Odax Valenciennes, 1840
• Parodax Scott, 1976 (synonymous with Siphonognathus according to Fishbase^[5]
• Olisthops Richardson, 1850
• Sheardichthys Whitley, 1947 (synonymous with Siphonognathus according to Fishbase^[5]
• Siphonognathus Richardson, 1858

Fishbase places six species in the genus Siphonognathus.^[5] Catalog of Fishes, in contrast, places four of the six species in the separate genus Sheardichthys and places S. caninis in the monospecific genus Parodax, leaving Siphonognathus as a monospecific genus containing only S. argyrophanes.^[6]