This is the fourth in a series of studies dealing with a fundamental problem in the systematics of clupeoid fishes – the problem of poor original descriptions relating to material that has rarely been re-examined. The clupeoid species described by Bloch and by Schneider are particularly important because they provide some of the oldest names still in use and because the types have not been redescribed in the modern era of clupeoid systematics, that is to say since Regan's pioneering studies of some 40 years ago.