It is native to the warm temperate western Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Synodus macrostigmus is an elongate, cylindrical fish growing to a standard length of about 21 cm (8 in).

Its range extends in the Atlantic from Bald Head Island, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida, and in the Gulf of Mexico from the Florida Keys to Alabama, and from the northern and western sides of the Yucatán Peninsula.

It is a benthic fish and lives over the continental shelf, its depth range being between 28 and 194 m (92 and 636 ft).

[1] Synodus macrostigmus is not of any commercial importance but is caught as bycatch in fisheries trawling for shrimps on the continental shelf, although this is not thought to significantly impact populations.