Updated 16 Aug. 2026
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Agonostomus Bennett 1832 ἀ-, privative, i.e., without; gomo, from gōnía- (γωνία), corner or angle; stomus, from stóma (στόμα), mouth, referring to more rounded (less angular) lower jaw of A. telfairii compared with Mugil cephalus

Agonostomus catalai Pellegrin 1932 in honor of René Catala (1901–1988), French coffee planter and amateur (at the time) biologist in Madagascar, who collected holotype

Agonostomus telfairii Bennett 1832 in honor of Irish botanist and ship surgeon Charles Telfair (1778–1833), who collected and/or acquired plants and animals in Mauritius in 1810, including holotype of this mullet

Aldrichetta Whitley 1945 -etta (L.), diminutive connoting endearment: in honor of Fred C. Aldrich, Chief Inspector of Fisheries and Game (Perth, Western Australia) from 1911–1937, an “able and enthusiastic fisheries investigator”

Aldrichetta forsteri (Valenciennes 1836) in honor of Johann Reinhold Forster (1729–1798), German clergyman and naturalist aboard James Cook’s second voyage on HMS Resolution, who observed this mullet in New Zealand in 1769; while he identified it as Mugil albula (=cephalus), his notes provided sufficient descriptive data for Valenciennes to determine it was a separate and new species

Cestraeus Valenciennes 1836 Latinization of kestreús (εστρεύς), a name used by Aristotle for a mullet (probably Chelon ramada)

Cestraeus goldiei (Macleay 1883) in honor of “Alex” Goldie, probably Andrew Goldie (1840–1891), Scottish-born merchant, explorer and natural history collector, who collected type from the Goldie River (which he named after himself) in Papua New Guinea

Cestraeus oxyrhyncus Valenciennes 1836 sharp-snouted, from oxýs (ὀξύς), sharp, and rhýnchos (ῥύγχος), snout, referring to sharp angle of lower lip, which makes the snout more pointed [an apparent misspelling, without the second “h” in “rhynchus”]

Cestraeus plicatilis Valenciennes 1836 Latin for pleated, referring to its “very thick” upper lip, with a “fleshy mass” at the end of the snout, “covered with excessively fine and numerous papillae, which give this organ a velvety appearance” (translations)

Chaenomugil Gill 1863 chaeno-, from chaínō (χαίνω), yawn or gape, “distinguished by the longitudinal cleft of the mouth”; Mugil, type genus of family and Latin for mullet

Chaenomugil proboscideus (Günther 1861) Latin for having a proboscis, referring to “extremely thick, conically produced” thick part of upper lip

Chelon Artedi 1793 chelṓn (χέλων), ancient Greek name for mullets in the Mediterranean [authorship sometimes attributed to Röse, who reprinted Artedi’s 1738 Synonymia nominum piscium]

Chelon auratus (Risso 1810) Latin for gilded, referring to the “beautiful golden spots that adorn its operculum” (translation)

Chelon bandialensis (Diouf 1991) -ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Bandiala, one of three coastal rivers that constitute the Sine Saloum estuary in Senegal, type locality

Chelon bispinosus (Bowdich 1825) bi-, from bis (L.), twice; spinosus (L.), thorny, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to two spines (plus seven rays) in second dorsal fin (first dorsal fin consists of four “strong” spines with no rays)

Chelon caeruleus Deef 2018 Latin for dark blue, referring to dark-blue color of sides [originally spelled caeruleum, emended to agree with masculine genus; species inquirenda, provisionally included here]

Chelon dumerili (Steindachner 1870) in honor of August Duméril (1812–1870), French herpetologist and ichthyologist, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), who loaned Steindachner specimens of other Sengalese fishes for study

Chelon labrosus (Risso 1827) Latin for large-lipped, allusion not explained but probably referring to its thicker lips compared with C. ramada

Chelon melinopterus (Valenciennes 1836) mēlinos (μήλινος), quince-yellow; pterus, from pterón (πτερόν) or ptéryx (πτέρυξ), fin, referring to lemon-yellow fins of living specimens, especially the caudal fin

Chelon natalensis (Castelnau 1861) -ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, locality

Chelon parsia (Hamilton 1822) local name for this mullet in West Bengal, India

Chelon persicus Senou, Randall & Okiyama 1995 -icus (L.), belonging to: Persian Gulf, where it appears to be endemic

Chelon ramada (Risso 1827) from ramado, local name for this mullet along the northwestern Mediterranean Sea

Chelon richardsonii (Smith 1846) patronym not identified, probably in honor of Scottish surgeon-naturalist John Richardson (1787–1865)

Chelon saliens (Risso 1810) Latin for leaping or jumping, referring to how this mullet “jumps with extraordinary velocity when it finds himself trapped in a net” (translation)

Chelon tricuspidens (Smith 1935) tri (L.), three; cuspis (L.), point; dens (L.), tooth. referring to its relatively large tricuspid teeth

Dajaus Valenciennes 1836 Latinization of dajao, local name for this mullet in Puerto Rico

Dajaus monticola (Bancroft 1834) montis (L.), mountain, -cola (L.), dweller or inhabitant,, referring to its occurrence in steep forested streams as high as 1500 m

Ellochelon Whitley 1930 Ellon Gistel 1848, an unneeded and presumably forgotten replacement name for Mugil, which for some reason Whitley wished to commemorate; chelṓn (χέλων), ancient Greek name for mullets in the Mediterranean

Ellochelon occidentalis (Castelnau 1873) Latin for western, referring to its occurrence in Western Australia

Ellochelon vaigiensis (Quoy & Gaimard 1825) -ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Pulau Waigeo (or Vaigiou), Papua Barat, Indonesia, type locality

Gracilimugil Whitley 1941 gracilis (L.), thin or slender, referring to its compressed body and “graceful” form; Mugil, type genus of family and Latin for mullet

Gracilimugil argenteus (Quoy & Gaimard 1825) Latin for silvery, referring to the silvery coloration of its “fine and pearly” scales (translation)

Joturus Poey 1860 Latinization of Joturo, Cuban name for J. pichardi in Havana (also known as Foturo)

Joturus pichardi Poey 1860 in honor of Cuban lexicographer-geographer Esteban Pichardo (1799–1879), “estimable auteur” of Diccionario Provincial de voces Cubanos and Geografia de la isla de Cuba (he also recommended the vernacular name Joturo)

Moolgarda Whitley 1945 native name of M. pura (=seheli) in Western Australia

Moolgarda cirrhostoma (Forster 1801) cirrhosus (L.), curled or having curls; stóma (στόμα), mouth, referring to its villous or ciliated lips [species inquirenda, provisionally included here]

Moolgarda crenilabis (Forsskål 1775) creni-, from crenatus (L.), notched or bearing rounded projections (crenate); labis, possibly a misspelling of labrus (L.), lip, referring to row of crenulate papillae along external edge of its thick lips

Moolgarda cunnesius (Valenciennes 1836) Latinization of Kunnesee, its local name at Vizagapatam on the Coromandel Coast of India, as reported in Russell’s Descriptions and figures of two hundred fishes; collected at Vizagapatam on the coast of Coromandel (1803)

Moolgarda delicata (Alleyne & Macleay 1877) Latin for dainty or tender, allusion not explained; authors may have meant delectabilis (L.) enjoyable or delectable, since they say “Of the many species of Mugil [original genus] with which Australia abounds, all of high reputation as edible fishes, this is decidedly the best.”

Moolgarda heterocheilos (Bleeker 1855) héteros (ἕτερος), different; cheī́los (χεῖλος), lip, allusion not explained, presumably referring to lip papillae, different from most other mullets then places in Mugil

Moolgarda seheli (Fabricius 1775) Sehêli, Arabic name for this mullet

Moolgarda tade (Fabricius 1775) Tâde, Arabic name for this mullet

Mugil Linnaeus 1758 Latin for a mullet

Mugil bananensis (Pellegrin 1927) -ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Banana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, type locality

Mugil brevirostris Miranda Ribeiro 1915 brevis (L.), short; rostris, Neo-Latin scientific adjective of rostrum (L.), snout, referring to its “de focinho curto”

Mugil broussonnetii Valenciennes 1836 in honor of physician-naturalist Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet (1761–1807), who acquired holotype from Joseph Banks, collected during James Cook’s first great voyage (1768–1771) [Valenciennes apparently misspelled Broussonet’s name, with an extra “n”]

Mugil capurrii (Perugia 1892) in honor of Capt. Guiseppe Capurro, who collected holotype in Senegal, and to whom the Museo Civico di Genova “owes many interesting animals collected by him during his travels” (translation)

Mugil cephalus Linnaeus 1758 Latinization of képhalos (κέφαλος), a name for this species dating to Aristotle

Mugil curema Valenciennes 1836 Curema, Portuguese vernacular used by Dutch naturalist Jorge Marcgrave in his 1648 Historia Naturalis Brasiliae, doubtless corresponding to the Spanish vernacular querimana (or queriman)

Mugil curvidens Valenciennes 1836 curvus (L.), bent or curved; dens (L.), tooth, referring to teeth in the lower jaw, which are directed downwards and forwards

Mugil hospes Jordan & Culver 1895 Latin for host or guest, referring to the near constant presence in its mouth or branchial cavity of a small oniscid crustacean similar to that found in the Menhaden Brevoortia tyrannus (Clupeidae)

Mugil hubensis Rizvi & Iqbal 1986 -ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Hub River, Baluchistan, Pakistan, type locality

Mugil incilis Hancock 1830 Latin for pertaining to a ditch or trench, “being chiefly found in the trenches or ditches dug for draining the flat lands of the coast of Guiana”

Mugil liza Valenciennes 1836 vernacular name for “mullet with big lips” in Spain, apparently applied to this western Atlantic and Caribbean species by the Spanish and/or Valenciennes

Mugil longicauda Guitart Manday & Alvarez-Lajonchere 1976 longus (L.), long; cauda (L.), tail, referring to its “notably elongated caudal peduncle”

Mugil margaritae Menezes, Nirchio, Oliveira & Siccharamirez 2015 of Isla Margarita, Venezuela, type locality

Mugil rubrioculus Harrison, Nirchio, Oliveira, Ron & Gaviria 2007 rubri-, from ruber (L.), red; oculus (L.), eye, referring to its distinctly reddish-orange iris

Mugil setosus Gilbert 1892 Latin for bristly, referring to “much larger multiserial setæ” (hair-like structures) on premaxilla compared with the similar M. curema (or a sympatric population later described as M. hospes)

Mugil thoburni (Jordan & Starks 1896) in honor of American biologist Wilbur Wilson Thoburn (1859–1899), who taught bionomics (ecology) at Stanford University (where Jordan was president), for his work on sculpins (Cottidae)

Mugil trichodon Poey 1875 trichós (τριχός), genitive singular of thríx (θρίξ), hair; odon, from odoús (ὀδούς), tooth, presumably referring to the filiform appearance of its teeth

Myxus Günther 1861 etymology not explained, presumably from myxī́nos (μυξῖνος), mentioned in Athenaeus (Deipnosophistae, ca. 200 AD) as a kind of mullet (probably Chelon auratus and/or C. saliens)

Myxus elongatus Günther 1861 Latin for prolonged, referring to how its “body appears to be more elongate” than other mullet species

Neochelon Durand, Chen, Shen, Fu & Borsa 2012 néos (νέος), new, i.e., a new genus of Chelon

Neochelon falcipinnis (Valenciennes 1836) falcatus (L.), sickle-shaped; pinnis, Neo-Latin adjective of pinna (L.), fin, i.e., finned, referring to its falcate anal fin

Neomyxus Steindachner 1878 néos (νέος), new, proposed as a subgenus of Myxus, i.e., a new Myxus

Neomyxus leuciscus (Günther 1871) leukískos (λευκίσκος), mentioned in Athenaeus (Deipnosophistae, ca. 200 AD) as a “white” mullet, possibly a diminutive of leukós (λευκός), white, presumably repurposed by Günther to refer to its silvery sides and white belly and/or its resemblance to the European leuciscid Leuciscus leuciscus

Oedalechilus Fowler 1903 oidaléos (οἰδαλέος), swollen; chilus, from cheī́los (χεῖλος), lip, referring to fleshy upper lip

Oedalechilus labeo (Cuvier 1829) Latin for one with large lips, referring to its fleshy upper lip, thicker than that of Mugil chelo (=Chelon labrosus), its presumed congener at the time

Osteomugil Luther 1982 osteo-, from ostéon (ὀστέον), bone, referring to how genus is differentiated by an osteological character (absent vs. present posterior zygapophysial hooks on any trunk vertebra); Mugil, type genus of family and Latin for mullet

Osteomugil engeli (Bleeker 1858) per Bleeker (1860), in honor of Chris Engel, who provided many of the illustrations in Bleeker’s Atlas Ichthyologique des Orientales Neerlandaises

Osteomugil perusii (Valenciennes 1836) in honor of French naval officer and explorer Jean-François de Galaup La Pérouse (1741–1788), “a name that will remind all scientists of the coasts where this species can be found” (translation), referring to Vanikoro Island in the South Pacific (type locality), where Pérouse was stranded after both his ships struck reefs; he and his crew were never seen again

Osteomugil robustus (Günther 1861) robustus, Latin for of oak or oaken and, by extension, hard, firm or solid (but often used by ichthyologists to mean fat or stout), presumably referring to its “very thick” body

Osteomugil speigleri (Bleeker 1858) patronym not identified but almost certainly in honor of Dutch artist Ludwig Speigler (1824–1893), who provided many of the illustrations in Bleeker’s Atlas Ichthyologique des Orientales Neerlandaises

Parachelon Durand, Chen, Shen, Fu & Borsa 2012 pará (παρά), near, allusion not explained, presumably referring to its placement next to Chelon on the authors’ phylogenetic tree

Parachelon grandisquamis (Valenciennes 1836) grandis (L.), large; squamis, Neo-Latin scientific adjective of squama (L.), scale, referring to larger scales, 26 or 28 along lateral line, compared with 45 on Mugil cryptocheilos (=Chelon auratus) and Mugil plumieri (=cephalus), its presumed congeners at the time

Paramugil Ghasemzadeh, Ivantsoff & Aarn 2004 pará (παρά), near; Mugil, genus in which both included species had previously been placed

Paramugil georgii (Ogilby 1897) etymology not explained, perhaps referring to the Georges River, New South Wales, Australia, type locality

Paramugil parmatus (Cantor 1849) Latin for bearing the parma (a round shield used by the Roman army), allusion not explained, perhaps referring to large silvery-white scales covering (i.e., shielding) body

Planiliza Whitley 1945 planus (L.), flat or level, presumably referring to “broad, flat and depressed” interorbital of P. ordensis; Liza (=Chelon), its presumed closest relative (see Mugil liza for etymology)

Planiliza abu (Heckel 1843) from Abu Sukkanejn, Arabic name for this mullet in Mosul, Iraq, from Abu, father (i.e., possessor, or one with), and sukkanejn, anchor, probably referring to its toothed suborbital bone (per Heckel), or abū, a prefix denoting “an animal having or being like” and ukkānayn, dual steering wheel or handle bars, referring to two dorsal (i.e., steering) fins

Planiliza alata (Steindachner 1892) Latin for winged, presumably referring to prolonged and sickle-shaped ventral, anal, caudal and second dorsal fins

Planiliza carinata (Valenciennes 1836) Latin for keeled, referring to predorsal scales in midline thickened and ridged to form a keel

Planiliza haematocheilus (Temminck & Schlegel 1845) haemoto, combining form of haimo- (αἱμο-), blood; cheilus, from cheī́los (χεῖλος), lip, , referring to “dirty purple” (translation) of lips of living specimens [often spelled as an adjective, hematocheila]

Planiliza klunzingeri (Day 1888) in honor of German physician and zoologist Carl Benjamin Klunzinger (1834–1914), who pointed out that Day had incorrectly identified this mullet as Mugil carinatus (=P. carinata) in 1876

Planiliza lauvergnii (Eydoux & Souleyet 1850) patronym not identified, probably in honor of Barthélemy Lauvergne (1805–1871), French painter and draughtsman on voyage during which holotype was collected

Planiliza macrolepis (Smith 1846) macro-, from makrós (μακρός), long or large; lepίs (λεπίς), scale, referring to “very large and hard” scales of back and sides

Planiliza mandapamensis (Thomson 1997) -ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Kilakarei, south of Mandapam, southern India, type locality

Planiliza ordensis (Whitley 1945) -ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Ord River, Western Australia, type locality

Planiliza planiceps (Valenciennes 1836) planus (L.), flat or level; –ceps (Neo-Latin), headed, referring to its “extremely flattened” (translation) head

Planiliza subviridis (Valenciennes 1836) sub- (L.), less than or somewhat; viridis (L.), green, referring to its greenish-gray back

Plicomugil Schultz 1953 plicatus (L.), folded, referring to its folded and lobed lips; Mugil, type genus of family and Latin for mullet

Plicomugil labiosus (Valenciennes 1836) Latin for large-lipped, referring to its fleshy lips

Pseudomyxus Durand, Chen, Shen, Fu & Borsa 2012 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (ψεύδης), false, i.e., although this genus may resemble Myxus, such an appearance is false

Pseudomyxus capensis (Valenciennes 1836) -ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, type locality

Rhinomugil Gill 1863 rhinós (ῥινός), genitive of rhís (ῥίς), snout, “distinguished by [its] projecting rounded snout”; Mugil, type genus of family and Latin for mullet

Rhinomugil corsula (Hamilton 1822) Latinization of Khorsula, local name for this mullet in West Bengal, India

Sicamugil Fowler 1939 sica (L.), curved dagger, referring to strongly spinate preorbital spine; Mugil, type genus of family and Latin for mullet

Sicamugil cascasia (Hamilton 1822) presumably a local Gangetic name for this mullet

Sicamugil hamiltonii (Day 1870) in honor of Francis Hamilton-Buchanan (1762–1829), Scottish physician and naturalist, who described the similar S. cascasia in 1822

Squalomugil Ogilby 1908 squalus (L.), dirty or filthy (i.e., squalid), and an ancient Latin name for marine fishes considered unfit for human consumption, including sharks, referring to its shark-like flattened head and inferior mouth; Mugil, type genus of family and Latin for mullet

Squalomugil nasutus (De Vis 1883) Latin for long-nosed, referring to its snout, described as “rounded, sharp, much produced” [placed in Rhinomugil by some workers]

Trachystoma Ogilby 1888 trachýs (τραχύς), jagged or rough; stóma (στόμα), mouth, referring to vomer and palate furnished with distinct bands of villiform teeth (but jaws are toothless)

Trachystoma petardi (Castelnau 1875) in honor of Mr. Petard (forename not available), who sent fishes to Castelnau collected from the Richmond River, New South Wales, including holotype of this one