Taxonomy and Naming
The trumpeter whiting is one of 29 species in the genus Sillago, which is one of three genera in the smelt-whiting family Sillaginidae. The smelt-whitings are Perciformes in the suborder Percoidea.
The species was first scientifically described by the Quoy and Gaimard in 1824 from specimens collected from the waters of Sydney Harbour in New South Wales, Australia. A specimen from this location was also designated to be the holotype. The species was subsequently redescribed under the name of Sillago gracilis by Alleyne and Macleay in 1877, which is a junior synonym and has been discarded under the ICZN rules. Roland McKay, whilst working on a revision of the sillaginids, found there to be three closely related species of 'trumpeter whiting'; the western trumpeter whiting, the oriental trumpeter whiting and the trumpeter whiting which he interpreted to be subspecies. He therefore assigned the trumpeter whiting the name Sillago maculata maculata to clarify its subspecies status, doing similar for the other two species. However, soon after publishing, more specimens came to light which validated giving the three subspecies full species status, and the trumpeter whiting once again returned to the binomial Sillago maculata.
The common name of the species, trumpeter whiting, refers to the grunting sound the fish makes when first taken from the water, with a number of other species of unrelated fish also known to do this. The names 'winter' and 'diver' whiting are in reference to the high catches made in winter by amateur fishermen and the depth at which larger individuals of the species inhabit respectively.
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