Updated 21 Aug. 2026
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Harpadon Lesueur 1825 hárpē (ἅρπη), a curved weapon or implement, similar to a sickle or a pruning hook; odon, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, presumably referring to “long, hooked” teeth of Salmo microps (=H. nehereus), “armed with one or two barbs at their extremities”

Harpadon erythraeus Klausewitz 1983 -eus (L.), adjectival suffix: erythrós (ἐρυθρός), red, referring to the Red Sea, where it is endemic

Harpadon microchir Günther 1878 micro-, from mikrós (μικρός), small; cheirós (χειρός), genitive of cheir (χείρ), hand, homologous to the pectoral fin, referring to its “very short” pectoral fin compared with H. nehereus

Harpadon mortenseni Hardenberg 1933 in honor of Danish echinoderm biologist Ole Theodor J. Mortensen (1868–1952), University of Copenhagen, who collected holotype

Harpadon nehereus (Hamilton 1822) Latinization of Nehare, its local name at the mouth of the Ganges River in India

Harpadon nudus Ganga & Thomas 2016 Latin for bare or naked, referring to absence of scales on body

Harpadon squamosus Alcock 1891 squama (L.), scale; –osus, L. suffix connoting fullness, referring to deciduous cycloid scales covering body, posterior part of head, and cheeks, becoming less deciduous on posterior half of tail

Harpadon translucens Saville-Kent 1889 Latin for clear, transparent or translucent, described as “remarkably transparent” in life

Saurida Valenciennes 1850 diminutive of Saurus (now a junior synonym of Synodus), referring to its similarity to that genus

Saurida argentea Macleay 1881 Latin for silvery, referring to silvery center on most of the scales

Saurida brasiliensis Norman 1935 -ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Cape Frio, Brazil, type locality

Saurida caribbaea Breder 1927 named for the Caribbean Sea, presumably referring to its type locality, north of Glovers Reef, Belize

Saurida elongata (Temminck & Schlegel 1846) Latin for prolonged, referring to its slenderer body compared with Aulopus filamentosus (Aulopidae), its presumed congener at the time

Saurida eso Jordan & Herre 1907 Japanese name for species of Saurida and Synodus

Saurida filamentosa Ogilby 1910 Latin for filamentous, referring to “more or less filamentous” third and fourth dorsal-fin rays, and produced second dorsal-fin ray, which reaches (when depressed) to or beyond base of adipose fin in male, and midway between adipose fin and tip of third dorsal-fin ray in females

Saurida flamma Waples 1982 Latin for flame or a blazing fire, referring to the “striking” reddish-orange coloration on mouth and body

Saurida fortis Furuhashi, Russell & Motomura 2022 Latin for strong, referring to its “robust” size

Saurida golanii Russell 2011 in honor of Israeli ichthyologist Daniel Golani, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for his “very significant” contribution to Red Sea ichthyology

Saurida gracilis (Quoy & Gaimard 1824) Latin for thin or slender, referring to its slender body (“corpore gracili”) compared with the conical body (“corpore conico”) of Synodus variegatus, its presumed congener at the time

Saurida grandisquamis Günther 1864 grandis (L.), large; squamis, Neo-Latin scientific adjective of squama (L.), scale, possibly referring to larger lateral-line scales compared with S. undosquamis

Saurida isarankurai Shindo & Yamada 1972 in honor of Thai fisheries biologist Andhi Isarankura (1935–2006), Marine Fisheries Laboratory (Bangkok); he worked to establish sustainable fisheries in the Asia and Pacific Islands

Saurida lessepsianus Russell, Golani & Tikochinski 2015 Latin for Lessepsian, referring to its distribution in both the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean Sea, having migrated from the former to the latter via the Suez Canal, a phenomenon known as “Lessepsian migration” (after the French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, who supervised the construction of the canal)

Saurida longimanus Norman 1939 longus (L.), long; manus (L.), hand (homologous to the pectoral fin), referring to longer pectoral fin compared with S. undosquamis

Saurida macrolepis Tanaka 1917 macro-, from makrós (μακρός), long or large; lepίs (λεπίς), scale, referring to larger scales compared with the similar S. argyrophanes (=tumbil)

Saurida micropectoralis Shindo & Yamada 1972 micro-, from mikrós (μικρός), small; pectoralis (L.), pectoral, referring to its “very short” pectoral fin, the shortest of all Indo-Pacific congeners known at the time

Saurida nebulosa Valenciennes 1850 Latin for cloudy, presumably referring to blackish spots or blotches on back and sides

Saurida normani Longley 1935 in honor of English ichthyologist J. R. (John Roxborough) Norman (1898–1944), British Museum (Natural History), for his contributions to ichthyology in general and to the knowledge of Synodontidae in particular

Saurida pseudotumbil Dutt & Sagar 1981 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (ψεύδης), false, referring to its previous misidentification as and close relationship to S. tumbil

Saurida suspicio Breder 1927 Latin for to look upwards, referring to its “curious upward glancing eyes”

Saurida tumbil (Bloch 1795) based on Tombili, its Tamil name in India, which Bloch decided to use since it is “easy to express in several European languages” (translation)

Saurida tweddlei Russell 2015 in honor of Denis Tweddle (b. 1949), Honorary Research Associate at South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, who collected this species during an exploratory fishing survey of the Mascarene Plateau by the research vessel Dr Fridtjof Nansen and brought it to Russell’s attention

Saurida umeyoshii Inoue & Nakabo 2006 in honor of Japanese ichthyologist Umeyoshi Yamada, formerly of the Fisheries Agency of Seikai National Fisheries Research Institute, who first recognized this species as new

Saurida undosquamis (Richardson 1848) undo-, presumably a variant or misspelling of undu-, from undulatus (L.), wavy; squamis, Neo-Latin scientific adjective of squama (L.), scale, possibly referring to its lateral-line scales, “irregularly semicircular or semioval, the chord or base being divided by three furrows into four lobes, and the free margins, with the adjoining parts of the disk, being undulated”

Saurida weijeni Russell, Malay & Cabebe-Barnuevo 2024 in honor of Wei-Jen Chen, Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, who collected this species during an exploratory fish survey of the Macclesfield Bank area of the South China Sea