Lutjaninae

Lutjaninae is a subfamily of marine ray-finned fish, one of four subfamilies in the snapper family Lutjanidae. It includes the true snappers and the fusiliers, which were once placed in their own family, Caesionidae. The fusiliers (genera Caesio, Dipterygonotus, Gymnocaesio, and Pterocaesio) are plankton feeders found on Indo-Pacific and Red Sea reefs. French zoologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte named the family Caesionidae in 1831, after the genus Caesio, which Bernard Germain de Lacépède named in 1801.

The name Caesio comes from the Latin caesius ("blue"), referring to the blue and gold fusilier (Caesio caerulaurea), the type species. More recent taxonomic studies show that fusiliers are deeply nested within Lutjanidae, making the old family paraphyletic, so they are now placed in the subfamily Lutjaninae. Lutjaninae contains 10 living genera: Caesio, Dipterygonotus, Gymnocaesio, Hoplopagrus, Lutjanus, Macolor, Ocyurus, Pinjalo, Pterocaesio, and Rhomboplites. A study of snappers in the tropical western Atlantic suggests that the monotypic genera Ocyurus and Rhomboplites fall within Lutjanus.

Distribution

Two fossil genera are known: †Hypsocephalus (Late Eocene of Florida) and the species †"Caesio" breviuscula (earliest Eocene of Turkmenistan). Lutjaninae has a global range. Lutjanus snappers occur in both the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific, while fusiliers are limited to the Indo-Pacific. Fusiliers mainly inhabit coral reefs, from near the surface down to about 60 meters (200 feet).

Characteristics

Fusiliers have cylindrical, streamlined, laterally flattened bodies with an oblong or fusiform shape, similar to other lutjanine snappers. A line from the snout to the center of the tail passes through the eye. Their mouths are small and protrusible, with small teeth in the jaws; teeth may or may not be present elsewhere in the mouth. The caudal fin is deeply forked with angular lobe tips.

The dorsal and anal fins slope evenly from front to back, except in Dipterygonotus, where some dorsal spines are nearly separate. Dorsal fins have 10–15 thin spines and 8–22 soft rays; anal fins have 3 spines and 9–13 soft rays. Pelvic fins have 1 spine and 5 soft rays; pectoral fins have 16–24 rays. Maximum length is about 60 cm (24 in), though most species reach only half that.