Species: Haemulon vittatum, Boga, Boga Grunt

Haemulon vittatum (Poey, 1860)

Boga, Boga Grunt

Elongate, rounded fusiform body; snout about eye length; mouth small, opens at front, top jaw highly protrusible, covered by bone under eye when mouth is closed, scaleless; no teeth on jaws or roof of mouth; 2 large pores on chin; preoperculum coarsely serrated, its corner extended and rounded; operculum with a broad, flat spine at rear; gill rakers long and slender; pectoral inserts high on flank, pointed; pelvic inserts just behind pectoral base; dorsal fin deeply notched XIV-XVII + II, 9-10, two parts of fin not or barely separated, no scales between them; anal fin II, 9; tail base broad, with a keel on each side; tail fin deeply forked; lateral line complete, extends onto tail fin, nearly to its edge; body and most of head with rough scales; second dorsal with a sheath of scales along its base; ~85 pored scales on lateral line.

Metallic blue-green above, bluish white below; a broad greenish stripe from eye to base of tail, 3-4 more brownish stripes above that; snout yellowish; fins whitish, tail lobes blackish grey, with whitish upper and lower borders.

Reaches 22.5 cm.

Pelagic on reefs.

Depth range: 0-105 m.

N Carolina to the southern Caribbean.

Note: Previously placed in the genus Inermia, in the family Inermiidae. Recent genetic study has shown that both species of Inermiids (Inermia vittata and Emmelichthyops atlanticus) are actually members of the family Haemulidae, and that I. vittata is actually a species of Haemulon.