Updated 17 Aug. 2026
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Electrophorus Gill 1864 electro-, combining form of electricus, Neo-Latin for “of amber” (see E. electricus); phorus, from phoreús (φορεύς), bearer or carrier, referring to its ability to generate a powerful electric shock (may also allude to an 18th-century manual capacitive generator of the same name)

Electrophorus electricus (Linnaeus 1766) Neo-Latin for “of amber,” referring to amber’s attractive properties, later applied to objects capable of attracting “light bodies” (e.g., bits of paper) when excited by friction, and then applied even later to the cause (electricity) rather than the property of the attraction, referring to this fish’s ability to generate a powerful electric shock

Electrophorus multivalvulus Nakashima 1941 multi– (L.), many; valvulus (L.), having folding doors, referring to a series of irregular lichen-like skin folds inside the mouth; Nakashima guessed that their function was related to the generation of electricity, but they actually serve as lungs, allowing electric eels to absorb oxygen from atmospheric air [sometimes misspelled as multivalvulatus]

Electrophorus varii de Santana, Wosiacki, Crampton, Sabaj, Dillman, Mendes-Júnior & Castro e Castro 2019 in honor of Richard P. Vari (1949–2016), National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C., USA), for his contributions to ichthyology [possibly a junior synonym of E. multivalvulus]

Electrophorus voltai de Santana, Wosiacki, Crampton, Sabaj, Dillman, Castro e Castro, Bastos & Vari 2019 in honor of Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (1745–1827), inventor of electric battery and for whom the “volt” is named (with a discharge of 860 V, this species is the strongest living bioelectricity generator known)