The wrasses are a particularly diverse and abundant family of reef fishes, with numerous species that occupy essentially all reef, rock, and grassbed habitats in the Caribbean. The bluehead wrasse, Thalassoma bifasciatum, is the single regional representative of a prominent labrid genus and is ubiquitous on Western Atlantic coral reefs. Another large genus of wrasses, Halichoeres, has more than 80 species throughout the tropics with many regional representatives, not all of which are closely related. There are three local razorfishes in Xyrichtys (note that Xyrichtys is frequently misspelled as Xyrichthys) and two hogfishes in Bodianus. The remaining labrid genera in the region are mostly monotypic: Doratonotus megalepis, Lachnolaimus maximus, Clepticus parrae, and the deep-water wrasse Decodon puellaris (the latter two species have a sibling species in the eastern Atlantic and in the eastern Pacific, respectively).
Labrid larvae can be recognized by the absence of head spines, long and continuous dorsal and anal fins with slender spines, a relatively wide caudal peduncle, stub-like pelvic fins, a pointed snout with a small terminal mouth and typically light markings (none or melanophores mostly on the fin-ray membranes). Notably, there is no row of melanophores along the anal-fin base, which separates labrid larvae from many similar-appearing groups, such as larval scarids, labrisomids, chaenopsids, dactyloscopids, and gobies. While most tropical labrid larvae fit this general pattern of small and mostly unpigmented larvae, two genera are exceptions: larval Lachnolaimus maximus are fully-pigmented and Decodon melasma have an unusual and large late larval stage with a pattern of bars on the body.
While genera are relatively easily distinguished, congeneric labrid larvae can appear similar, if not identical. Several species of Halichoeres share melanophore patterns and only become recognizable to species during transition. Larval razorfishes, Xyrichtys, have no melanophores and do not diverge in appearance until juvenile markings develop (however their evanescent chromatophore patterns may be species-specific). Some Caribbean labrid larvae require DNA sequencing for identification to species.
The labrids below are presented in order of increasing numbers of dorsal-fin spines: from 8 to 14 in the regional labrids. Fin-ray counts generally separate Caribbean genera well.
