Genus: Mugil, Common Mullet, Mullets

MUGIL

MULLETS

Moderately elongate, robust body; head broad, flattened above; eyes partly covered by a well developed transparent fatty eyelid; mouth small, opens at front, lips thin, with a knob at front of lower lips; jaw teeth simple (1 point) or notched, attached to lips, tiny or invisible to naked eye; no teeth on tongue or roof of mouth; two short, widely spaced dorsal fins, IV + I, 7-8; anal fin III, 8-9 (II, 9-10 in juveniles); pectorals high on body, 1st ray hard; pelvics inserted behind pectoral base; concave or weakly forked tail; scales moderate to large, rough on body of adults; 45 or less lateral scales; no lateral line.

A circumglobal tropical to temperate genus with 17 species; represented in our region by 10 species, 1 circumtropical, 2 that occurs in the eastern Pacific as well as the W Atlantic (one of those also occurs in the E Atlantic), and 8 W Atlantic species.