Genus: Hypleurochilus, Blennies, Combtooth Blenny

HYPLEUROCHILUS

BLENNIES

Head large, blunt; body elongate, compressed; a single branched cirrus over eye; mouth opens at front; teeth like incisors, with a large curved canine at rear of each jaw; gill membranes broadly fused on throat, upper end of gill opening at level of lower base of pectoral fin; dorsal fin XI-XIII, with a distinct notch between spiny and soft parts; pectoral fin typically 14 rays; fin rays unbranched, except on tail fin; lateral line in 2 parts, 1st curved down behind end of pectoral, ends under last dorsal spines, 2nd from mid-flank to above ~middle of anal fin; no scales.

A tropical Atlantic and Mediterranean genus with 11 species; 6 endemic species in the Greater Caribbean; one of which has passed through the Panama Canal and is known from the Pacific entrance to that Canal.