Revised 8 Nov. 2025
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Melanonus Günther 1878 mélanos (μέλανος), genitive of mélas (μέλας), black, referring to entirely deep-black body of M. gracilis; onus, presumably a Latinization of onos (ὄνος), donkey or ass (asellus in Latin), a name dating to Aristotle for an unidentified gadiform fish, possibly Phycis blennoides (Gadidae) but often applied to Merluccius merluccius (Merlucciidae) and hence used several times by Günther as a suffix for a hake-like fish

Melanonus gracilis Günther 1878 Latin for thin or slender, presumably referring to its “rather compressed” head and body and/or how body terminates into a “long tapering” tail without a caudal fin

Melanonus zugmayeri Norman 1930 in honor of Austrian explorer, herpetologist and ichthyologist Erich Zugmayer (1879–1938), Bavarian State Zoological Collection (Munich), who reported this species as M. gracilis in 1911