Genus: Cheilopogon, Flyingfish, Flyingfishes

CHEILOPOGON

FLYINGFISHES

Elongate, broadly cylindrical bodies; head short, snout short and blunt; mouth small, jaws ~ equal length, or lower a little longer, top jaw straight at front; jaw teeth with 1 point, sometimes with smaller secondary points; roof of mouth with teeth; fins without spines; pectoral reaches past anal base, its 1st (and sometimes second) ray unbranched; pelvic fins with origin nearer end of head than base of tail fin (except in C. papillo), fin long, reaches past anal origin; dorsal fin high, with black blotch; anal fin origin under or behind 3rd dorsal ray; tail deeply forked with a longer lower lobe; scales large, smooth, easily shed; lateral line low on the body, no branch of lateral line to origin of pectoral; juveniles with 2 fused barbels under chin.

A circumglobal, tropical to temperate genus with ~ 24 species; 5 species, (2 circumtropical, 1 W Atlantic and 2 Atlantic) occur in the Greater Caribbean.