Rastrelliger Jordan and Starks in Jordan and Dickerson, 1908
Body moderately deep. Front and hind margins of eye covered by an adipose eyelid. Teeth in upper and lower jaws small and conical; teeth absent on vomer and palatine bones. Gillrakers long and fine, 20-48 on lower limb of first arch. Last branchiostegal ray forms wide plate. 2 widely separated dorsal fins (interspace at least equal to length of first dorsal fin base), the first with 8-11 spines; 5 dorsal and 5 anal finlets. Inter-pelvic process small and single. Scales behind head and around pectoral fins larger and more conspicuous than those covering rest of body but no well-developed corselet. No median keel between the two small keels on each side of caudal peduncle. No bony keels on caudal peduncle vertebrae. Swimbladder present. Intestine folded, at least as long as length of fish. Liver simple, single-lobed. No cutaneous artery. Vertebrae 13 + 18 = 31. Caudal vertebrae all about the same length, last two or three not greatly shortened. Inter-neural bones under first dorsal fin 11; first inter-haemal bone anterior to haemal spine of fourteenth vertebra.
Epipelagic. Schooling. Feeding on plankton, particularly crustaceans. Eggs and larvae planktonic.
Species 3; in Clofnam area 1.
Recent revision: Matsui (1967).
Species of this genus in the program:
Rastrelliger kanagurta