Bar Jack - Taxonomy and Naming

Taxonomy and Naming

The bar jack is classified within the genus Carangoides, a group of fishes commonly known as jacks and trevallies, which is part of the larger jack and horse mackerel family Carangidae. The Carangidae are perciform fishes in the suborder Percoidei. The fish is still often classified in the genus Caranx by most authors, including in the most recent review of the species by William Smith-Vaniz, but the major taxonomic authorities Fishbase and ITIS both list it as under Carangoides, which this article follows.

The bar jack was first scientifically described under the name Somber ruber by Marcus Bloch, in 1793 based on a specimen taken from the east coast of America, which was designated to be the holotype. Carangoides is derived from the French word, carangue, or a fish from the Caribbean, while ruber (sometimes incorrectly spelled rubber) is Latin for red. Bloch attributed the species to the mackerels of the genus Scomber, a common practice during this period as the genus Caranx and subsequent family Carangidae were not created until 1801 by Bernard Germain de Lacépède. The species has been variably placed in either Carangoides or Caranx since 1801, with the status of the species still somewhat ambiguous. A recent study of the molecular systematics of the Carangidae using mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences strongly supported placement in the genus Caranx, with C. ruber being most closely related to Caranx bartholomaei, itself still often classified under Carangoides. Both C. ruber and C. bartholomaei were strongly related to other well known members of Caranx, and only distantly related to any other species of Carangoides.

Aside from the most commonly used name of "bar jack", other common names for this fish include blue-striped cavalla, red jack, neverbite, passing jack, and pointnose, as well as many non-English names.