Greek Names in Fish Taxonomy: Malawi Cichlids - 3

Greek Names in Fish Taxonomy: Malawi Cichlids - 3

Written by Marina Parha and George J. Reclos Sunday, 11 August 2002 02:00

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Part II : Mbuna Malawi Cichlids

As was the case previously, please note that if the Genus name contains Greek words, the translation is shown next to the Genus name. The same translation is not repeated next to species names. Therefore, to get a complete picture the reader should combine the two translations. For example: to translate Labidochromis gigas the reader must combine the translation of the genus (Labido=pincer + chromis) with that of the species (gigas=giant).

Cyathochromis (Cyathos=cup)

Cynotilapia (Cyno=dog, dog like)

Genyochromis: The meaning is from geneion=chin rather than from geneias=beard. This is a (vaguely) Chromis-like fish with a prominent chin.

Gephyrochromis (gephyro=bridge)

Iodotropheus (Iodo=violet + tropheus=eater, eating)
Compounds based on -tropheus (eater). In Lake Malawi, these names allude to the Lake Tanganyika genus Tropheus (which was so named because of obvious feeding specializations in the teeth). Pseudotropheus was intended to mean "a false Tropheus," not "false eater." Iodotropheus: As it happens, Dr. Oliver himself coined this name back in 1972, so he can tell us exactly what he intended by it. This cichlid has two prominent colors, violet and a brownish red, resembling iron rust. The common name in America is "rusty cichlid". He chose to emphasize the violet, using the stem iodes / ioeides, violet-like in color. The Greek ios, rust, probably influenced his choice because the name seemed to reflect both rust as well as violet.

Labeotropheus (tropheus=eater)
Labeotropheus, is a name which also refers to another genus. Labeotropheus is a Topheus-like fish which resembles the African cyprinid fish genus Labeo in the form of its mouth. A simple literal translation of the two parts of the name (labeo [Latin], one who has large lips; tropheus=eater) would miss the sense of the name because it misses the reference to another kind of fish.

Labidochromis
Labidochromis gigas (gigas=giant)
Labidochromis heterodon (hetero=other, different + odon=tooth)
Labidochromis mylodon (mylos=mill + odon=tooth)

Maylandia
(synonym Metriaclima) (Metria=modest, average + clima from clisis=slope)
Maylandia chrysomallos (chryso=golden + mallos=wool, hair)
Maylandia cyneusmarginata (cyneus=dog like)
(Maylandia) cyneusmarginatus: Actually, the species name was an error! The authors were thinking of cyan- (blue), not cyneus=doglike. See Dr.Oliver's page about this peculiar mistake. The authors explicitly stated "The name cyneusmarginatus, from the Greek, meaning blue margin to note the blue marginal band in the dorsal fin." They misspelled the name like this many times in their paper!
Maylandia heteropicta (hetero=other, different)
Maylandia melabranchion (mela=black + branchion=gill)
Maylandia phaeos (phaeos=ash or gray colored)
Maylandia pyrsonotos (pyrsos=torch + notos = back, backside)

Melanochromis (Melano=black)
Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (cyanos=blue + rhabdos=bar, stick)
Melanochromis dialeptos (dialeptos=not continous)
Melanochromis elastodema (elasto=elastic + dema=body, package)
Melanochromis heterochromis (hetero=other, different)
Melanochromis labrosus:This fish has enlarged, fleshy lips; the species name is from Latin labrum, lip; labrosus, having prominent lips.
Melanochromis lepidiadaptes: This is from lepidion (diminutive of scale) and daptes=eater. This cichlid bites the scales off other cichlids.
Melanochromis melanopterus (melanos=black + pteron=wing, fin)
Melanochromis parallelus (parallelos=parallel)
Melanochromis perileucos (peri=around + leucos=white)
Melanochromis xanthodigma (xantho=blond, light coloured)
Digma (deigma, deigmatos) here means "pattern" in the sense of the fish's color pattern. This fish is patterned with yellow.

Petrotilapia (Petra=stone)
Petrotilapia chrysos (chrysos=golden)

Pseudotropheus (Pseudo=fake, not true + tropheus=eater. Here however Tropheus indicates the already established genus - see above)
Pseudotropheus heteropictus (hetero=other, different)
Yes, hetero=other; + Latin pictus=painted, colored. (Note the bastard Greek+Latin name; as Dr. Oliver says, today's taxonomists are not well-versed in classical languages!) This species is differently colored than related species.
Pseudotropheus (Tropheops) macrophthalmus (macros=long + ophthalmus=eye). Tropheops is a composite word from Tropheusopsis (=look, appearance). In this case both words (i.e. Pseudotropheus and Tropheops have the same meaning, i.e. a false Tropheus (former) or something that looks like Tropheus (latter).
Pseudotropheus (Tropheops) microstoma (micro=small + stoma=mouth)

Webmaster's note:

Related articles: How Scientific Names Work by Francesco Zezza.

On the translation of Thoricthys meeki see http://www.cichlidae.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=700

For the etymology of scientific names of central American cichlids see:

http://forum.aquamojo.com/lofiversion/index.php?t7780.html, http://cichlidae.com/article.php?id=79