Body slender, rounded; 10-15 rays on membrane under gill cover; premaxilla (front bone of top jaws) rectangular; dorsal fin just before midbody; dorsal rays 18; pelvics behind dorsal; anal fin with short base (13 rays), origin well behind dorsal fin; belly with only one scute (large spiny scale), W shaped, at front of base of pelvics.
Blue on back, silvery on sides and belly.
Size: reaches 30 cm.
Habitat: forms pelagic schools along rocky shorelines.
Depth: 0-200 m.
Southern Australia, Japan, East Africa, and Red Sea, W. Atlantic, eastern Pacific, and Hawaiian Islands; in the eastern Pacific it occurs from southern California throughout the Gulf of California to Peru, and the Galapagos.
