Whitefin Trevally - Taxonomy and Naming

Taxonomy and Naming

The whitefin trevally is classified within the genus Carangoides, a group of fish commonly known as jacks and trevallies. Carangoides falls into the jack and horse mackerel family Carangidae, itself part the order Perciformes, in the suborder Percoidei.

The species was first scientifically described by Dutch naturalists Coenraad Jacob Temminck and Hermann Schlegel in 1844 based on a specimen taken from the waters off Japan, which was designated to be the holotype. They named the species Caranx equula, although the species was later moved to Carangoides, as well as having a new genus created for it; Kaiwarinus. This genus is currently considered invalid, even though a 1988 review of the phylogeny of the Carangidae found it to be valid, and to be the sister genus to Pseudocaranx, not closely related to Carangoides. The species was independently renamed as Carangoides acutus in 1974, but this is rejected as a junior synonym under ICZN nomenclature rules.

Specimens taken from Hawaii and Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean initially had the name Caranx (Carangoides) dasson applied to them by the American ichthyologist David Starr Jordan and Snyder. This name was eventually synonymised with Carangoides equula, but uncertainty still remains whether this population actually represents a separate species or subspecies. The Carangoides dasson population has the same diagnostic features as Carangoides equula, but exhibit more slender bodies and larger eyes, with William Vaniz-Smith indicating more research is required to determine the relationship between these populations. The name Caranx (Carangoides) dasson is still currently considered to be invalid by taxonomic authorities.