Genus: Plectrypops, Cardinal Soldierfish, Soldierfishes

PLECTRYPOPS

SOLDIERFISHES

Body ovate, deep; snout moderately pointed with relatively long straight forehead; groove on center of forehead an elongate rhomboid; eye large, at upper margin of head; mouth moderately large, slightly oblique; edge of bone under eye with small, slender, curved, partly forward-pointing spines; no large spines at corner of operculum or preoperculum; dorsal with XII spines, last spine shorter than spine before it, divided to base between 11th and 12th spines; anal with IV spines, none extremely long or thick, 11 rays; pelvics I, 7; tail fin small, forked, with strongly rounded lobes; scales very rough.

This is pantropical genus except for the eastern Atlantic and contains two species, one W Atlantic species in the Greater Caribbean.