Carangoides - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The genus Carangoides is one of 31 genera in the jack and horse mackerel family, Carangidae, which are perciform fishes in the suborder Percoidei. A number of recent phylogenetic studies on the family has placed Carangoides in the subfamily Caranginae (or tribe Carangini), being most closely related to the genera Alectis, Atropus, Selene and Uraspis.

Carangoides was created by Pieter Bleeker in 1851 to accommodate a species of carangid fish, although the species he created the genus for is unknown. To rectify this, Caranx praeustus was selected to be the type species of the genus. Carangid classification was initially very difficult, with many genera and species described, many of which were synonymous. Later reviews of the family eventually placed 21 species into Carangoides, leaving a number of genera synonymous with it. Carangoides takes priority over these other genera because its type species, Caranx praeustus, was described by an unknown author before the other species and genera were erected. The species of the genus are often referred to as jacks or trevallies, and sometimes more specifically as 'island jacks'. The name Carangoides is derived from the French carangue, meaning 'fish of the Caribbean'.

Read more about this topic:  Carangoides