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Genus: Hypleurochilus, Blennies, Combtooth Blenny


All Families:   All Genera:   All Species:

cirri: 1 branched over eye
D XI-XIII, notch
large rear canine: both jaws
gill opening side only
LL: 2 parts, ends over mid A

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.