Orangespotted Trevally - Taxonomy and Naming

Taxonomy and Naming

The orangespotted trevally is classified within the genus Carangoides, a group of fish commonly called 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 the Swedish naturalist Peter Forsskål in 1775 based on a specimen taken from the Red Sea which he designated to be the holotype. The specific epithet is an Arabic name of the fish (although it is now usually applied to a catfish, Bagrus bajad, which Forsskål also named), with the letter "j" transcribing a /j/ sound; Forsskål used this technique to name a number of Red Sea fish species. Forsskål at first gave the new taxon subspecies status as Scomber ferdau bajad, relating it to the mackerels, and especially Scomber ferdau, which would later also be transferred to Carangoides. The taxon was later given a species rank, becoming Scomber bajad, then Caranx bajad, before being transferred to its current position as Carangoides bajad.

The species was also independently renamed three times after Forsskål's description, the first coming from Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, who named the species Caranx immaculatus, although he did not accurately publish the name, leading Georges Cuvier to rename the fish as Caranx auroguttatus in 1833, which was later transferred to Carangoides. In 1871, Carl Benjamin Klunzinger once again proposed a new subspecies (or variety) name for the fish, Caranx fulvoguttatus var. flava. All names except Carangoides bajad are considered to be junior synonyms under the ICZN rules, and are rendered invalid and not used.