Family Engraulidae' 



SAMUEL F. HILDEBRAND2 



Characters. Body moderately slender, compressed. Chest and Abdomen in 

 American species often carinate, without bony serrae. Mouth horizontal or nearly so. 

 Maxillary extending well beyond eye, sometimes nearly or quite to gill opening. 

 Snout blunt, generally projecting far beyond tip of mandible. Eye placed well forward, 

 in anterior half of head, sometimes with well developed adipose tissue in adults. 

 Premaxillaries not protractile, embedded in tissue of snout anteriorly, widely sepa- 

 rated medianly. Teeth typically minute (some on jaw enlarged in Lycengraulis)\ present 

 on jaws, vomer, palatines, pterygoids, and hyoids. Gill covers generally separate and 

 free from isthmus (connected by a thin membrane in Cetengraulis). Pseudobranchiae 

 present. Gill rakers generally slender, rarely short, broad, and spiny; increasing in 

 number with age in some species (as in Anchovid). Scales thin, cycloid (usually lost 

 on preserved specimens), generally if not always forming a sheath on bases of dorsal 

 and anal fins; an enlarged scale in axil of pectoral and pelvic fins in American species. 

 Lateral line absent. Dorsal fin usually median in position, rarely behind mid- 

 length, with about 12-16 rays in American genera. Adipose fin lacking. Caudal 

 fin rather deeply forked. Anal with various ray counts, about 15-40 in American 

 species. 



Genera. The division of the family into compact and clearly definable genera is 

 difficult. Thus there is a divergence of opinion among students concerning the status 

 of described genera. Seven genera have been recognized (j), all confined to American 

 waters, excepting Engraulis, which, though not represented in the western North 

 Atlantic, is very widely distributed in both hemispheres; 75 species have been recog- 



1. Edited, with some revision and expansion, by George S. Myers, Myvanwy M. Dick, Henry B. Bigelow, and 

 Yngve H. Olsen. 



2. August 15, 1883-March 16, 1949. 



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