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Greek Names in Fish Taxonomy: Malawi Cichlids

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

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What does this name mean ?

Malawi cichlids, as all fishes, can be referred to either by using their commercial names (such as Electric blue hap, Electric yellow labido etc.) or by using their scientific names. Using the scientific name is preferable: this is the correct name in that it is the only internationally accepted name and there is no confusion about it. Each scientific name corresponds to one very specific species and it is so understood by everybody. Names like "African peacock" or "Sunshine peacock" may refer to more than one species of fish. More often than not these names are coined by LFS owners or agents and they aim at making the fish sound attractive to potential customers in order to promote sales.

Scientific names have two parts: the first, spelled with a capital, is the name of the genus and the second is the name of the species of the fish. The genus and species of the fish are part of its taxonomy in the animal kingdom and follow strict rules. Hence in Melanochromis johanni, the genus is "Melanochromis" while the species name is "johanni". It goes without saying that each genus may include a number of different species whilst each species describes exclusively a particular fish. Thus, there are many species in the Melanochromis genus (parallelus, johanni, auratus, chipokae etc.). In rare cases one genus contains only one species, such as the genus Cyrtocara which only includes the species moorii.

Scientific names originate in a variety of ways. Most commonly they have either a Greek or Latin origin which describes the genus. The definition of the species may follow the same rule or may be based on the name of the person who first discovered or described the particular fish (e.g. axelroddi, brichardi, baenschi, stuartgranti etc.), the locality the fish was first found etc. Scientific names mean almost nothing to most hobbyists who believe they have to rely on the "common" or "commercial" name of a fish, since this is the only term that best "describes" the fish. This is far from being true; scientific names, in most cases, describe fish in a far more accurate way than any common name does. Provided, that is, one understands what they mean. In this article, we will provide an interpetation of the Greek words used as part of the scientific names of Malawi cichlids. This will clarify the ways in which these names describe the fish.

Though not Malawi cichlids, the following fish offer very good examples of the descriptions provided by a scientific names as opposed to descriptions provided by a common names:

• Amphilophus cintrinellus: from Greek, amphi = both sides and lophos = crest; from latin, citrinellum means lemon like. Meaning : A yellow fish, crested on both sides. Common name: Midas cichlid.
• Geophagus crassilabris: from Greek: geo = earth and phagus = eater; from Latin crassus = fat, labris = lips. Meaning a thick lipped earth eater (indicating a habit of the fish).
• Thoricthys meeki: from Greek, thor (to dash) + ichthys (fish) meaning a fish which jumps; meeki in honour of the American icthyologist S. E. Meek. Common name: firemouth cichlid.
• Synodontis Syn (plus, combined) + Dontis (having teeth). Meaning a fish with compounded teeth.
• And of course, one should not forget the well known "Jewel cichlids": a name which is used indiscriminately for members of the Hemichromis sp. and could refer to H. bimaculatus, H. guttatus, H. lifallili etc.

It should be noted that sometimes the original meaning of the word used is forgotten and the word is used as it stands today. An example is the word "electra", which originates from the Ancient Greek word "electron". Electron actually means "amber" (the substance) while it is now used to imply the presence of an "electric" color. So, in some cases, the meaning of the ancient Greek word is not enough to describe the genus. Furthermore, sometimes the spelling of the word is simplified to fit non Greek speaking people so it becomes more difficult, even for Greeks, to find the correct etymology of the word. As an example, the word "lips" in Greek is "Cheilos" and it should be spelled like that. While this is so in many genera, in some species (as in Chilotilapia euchilus) it is spelled differently. This is the cause of too much confusion because the word theme "chilo-" has another meaning in Greek.

Finally it is worth mentioning that a number of different words used to describe species are in fact synonyms. So, for example, the words pleurostigma, pleurospila, laterospila and laterostigma all mean the same thing, namely having dots on the side (pleuro in Greek means side as does latus in Latin; stigma and spilos both mean dot or smear in Greek). There is not, at present, a universally accepted way to desribe certain morphological characteristics; it is in the discretion of the person naming the fish to chose any name they prefer. This, on occasions, leads to errors in definitions, such as the one pointed out by Dr Oliver below (see Maylandia cyneusmarginatus).

This article could have not been complete without the generous help of Dr. Michael K. Oliver to whom many thanks are owed. In his site you can find invaluable information about the taxonomy of Lake Malawi cichlids.