Updated 29 March 2024
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Helicophagus Bleeker 1857 helico-, from Helix, genus of land snails, but apparently used here as a general term for snail or gastropod; phago, from phageín (Gr. φαγεῖν), to eat, referring to molluscivorous diet of H. typus

Helicophagus leptorhynchus Ng & Kottelat 2000 leptós (Gr. λεπτός), slender; rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to its relatively slender snout compared with congeners

Helicophagus typus Bleeker 1857 serving as type species of the genus

Helicophagus waandersii Bleeker 1858 in honor of Jean Theodore van Bloemen Waanders (1820–1889), Captain, then Lieutenant-Colonel, of the Artillery in the Dutch East Indian Army, and an amateur naturalist, who collected holotype

Pangasianodon Chevey 1931 án– (ἄν=), Greek privative, i.e., not or ´without; odon, latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, i.e., a toothless Pangasius

Pangasianodon gigas Chevey 1931 gígas (Gr. γίγας), giant, described at up to 2.5 m (known to reach 3.2 m and 300 kg, one of the largest freshwater fishes in the world)

Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (Sauvage 1878) hypó (Gr. ὑπό), under or beneath; ophthalmós (Gr. ὀφθαλμός), eye, referring to low placement of eyes on head

Pangasius Valenciennes 1840 tautonymous with Pimelodus pangasius Hamilton 1822 (but unnecessarily renamed P. buchanani, in honor of Hamilton, aka Hamilton-Buchanan); latinization of pangas, Assamese name for P. pangasius in India

Subgenus Pangasius

Pangasius bocourti Sauvage 1880 in honor of French zoologist and artist Marie Firmin Bocourt (1819–1904), who described P. larnaudii in 1866

Pangasius conchophilus Roberts & Vidthayanon 1991 concho, from concha (Neo-Latin), and kónchē (Gr. κόγχη), mussel or cockle; phílos (Gr. φίλος), fond of, referring to its “pronounced molluscivory”

Pangasius djambal Bleeker 1846 Malayan and Sundanese name for this catfish

Pangasius elongatus Pouyaud, Gustiano & Teugels 2002 Latin for prolonged, referring to its elongate body, the most elongate species in the subgenus

Pangasius icaria Ayyathurai, Kodeeswaran, Mohindra, Singh, Ravi, Kumar, Valaparambil, Thangappan, Jena & Lal 2022 –ia (L. suffix), belonging to: Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), parent organization of the National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (Kochi, Kerala, India), which conducted the research that led to the discovery and description of this catfish

Pangasius krempfi Fang & Chaux 1949 in honor of French marine biologist Armand Krempf (1879–?), Nha Trang Institute of Oceanography (Vietnam), who collected holotype

Pangasius kunyit Pouyaud, Teugels & Legendre 1999 local name for this species among fishers in Sumatra and Kalimantan, from the Javanese word for saffron, referring to its goldish color

Pangasius larnaudii Bocourt 1866 in honor of R. P. Larnaudie (d. 1899), Jesuit missionary priest, for his care and hospitality during Bocourt’s seven months in Thailand

Pangasius macronema Bleeker 1850 macro-, from makrós (Gr. μακρός), long or large; nḗma (Gr. νῆμα), thread or yarn, referring to its long barbels, longer than head

Pangasius mahakamensis Pouyaud, Gustiano & Teugels 2002 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Mahakam River basin, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, type locality

Pangasius mekongensis Gustiano, Teugels & Pouyaud 2003 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Mekong River basin, Vietnam, type locality

Pangasius myanmar Roberts & Vidthayanon 1991 named for Myanmar (formerly Burma), where it is endemic

Pangasius nasutus (Bleeker 1863) Latin for large-nosed, referring to its “sharp and angular snout” (translation)

Pangasius pangasius (Hamilton 1822) latinization of pangas, Assamese name for this catfish in India

Pangasius polyuranodon Bleeker 1852 poly– (Gr.), many; urano-, from ouranískos (Gr. οὐρανίσκος), roof of mouth; odon, latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, referring to its large, square group of vomerine teeth

Pangasius rheophilus Pouyaud & Teugels 2000 rhéos (Gr. ῥέος), stream, current or rushing stream; phílos (Gr. φίλος), fond of, referring to its adaptation to torrential waters

Pangasius sabahensis Gustiano, Teugels & Pouyaud 2003 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Sabah State, Malaysia, type locality

Pangasius sanitwongsei Smith 1931 in honor of the late Yai Suapan Sanitwongse, physician and medical officer in Thai government service, for “his keen personal interest” in the fishes of Thailand; he brought this species to Smith’s attention and pointed out its distinctive characters

Pangasius silasi Dwivedi, Gupta, Singh, Mohindra, Chandra, Easawarn, Jena & Lal 2017 in honor of Eric Godwin Silas (1928–2018), Sri Lankan-born Indian ichthyologist and Director, Central Marine Fisheries Institute (India), for important contributions to taxonomy of Indian fish species, their biogeography and evolutionary divergence

Subgenus Neopangasius Popta 1904 néos (Gr. νέος), new, proposed as a new genus of Pangasius

Pangasius humeralis Roberts 1989 Latin for humeral, referring to its exceptionally large humeral (postcleithral) process

Pangasius kinabatanganensis Roberts & Vidthayanon 1991 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Kinabatangan River basin, northeastern Borneo, Malaysia, only known area of occurrence

Pangasius lithostoma Roberts 1989 líthos (Gr. λῐ́θος), stone; stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, referring to vomerine toothplate that “projects strongly downwards from the roof of the mouth like a millstone”

Pangasius nieuwenhuisii (Popta 1904) in honor of Dutch explorer and ethnographer Anton Willem Nieuwenhuis (1864–1953), who collected holotype

Pseudolais Vaillant 1902 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (Gr. ψεύδης), false, i.e., although similar to the schilbeid genus Lais (=Laides), such an appearance is false

Pseudolais micronemus (Bleeker 1846) micro-, from mikrós (Gr. μικρός), small; nemus, unnecessary masculinization of nḗma (Gr. νῆμα), thread or yarn, referring to its short mandibular barbels, not or barely reaching eye

Pseudolais pleurotaenia (Sauvage 1878) pleuro-, from pleurá (Gr. πλευρά), side; taenia, from tainía (Gr. ταινία), band or ribbon, referring to narrow black band on flanks