Updated 9 Sept. 2023
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Subfamily PETROMYZONTINAE Bonaparte 1831

Ichthyomyzon Girard 1858 ichthýos (Gr. ἰχθύος ), genitive of ichthýs (ἰχθύς), fish; myzon, from mýzō (Gr. μύζω) to suck (borrowed from Petromyzon), i.e., a sucking fish, referring to their suctorial behavior

Ichthyomyzon bdellium (Jordan 1885) Latinized from bdélla (Gr. βδέλλα), leech, referring to its leech-like suctorial and/or parasitic feeding behavior (as adults)

Ichthyomyzon castaneus Girard 1858 Latin for chestnut-brown, referring to its “uniform chesnut [sic] tint”

Ichthyomyzon fossor Reighard & Cummins 1916 Latin for digger, referring to how ammocoetes burrow into silt and sand

Ichthyomyzon gagei Hubbs & Trautman 1937 in honor of American histologist and embryologist Simon Henry Gage (1851‒1944), Cornell University (Ithaca, New York, USA), “one of the foremost students of the lampreys,” who brought this “interesting and distinct species” to the authors’ attention

Ichthyomyzon greeleyi Hubbs & Trautman 1937 in honor of fisheries scientist John R. Greeley (1904‒1964), who collected holotype and granted the authors permission to describe it

Ichthyomyzon unicuspis Hubbs & Trautman 1937 unus (L.), one; cuspis (L.), point, referring to single (unicuspid) cusps of circumoral teeth of adults (compared with bicuspid circumoral teeth of congeners)

Petromyzon Linnaeus 1758 petro-, from pétra (Gr. πέτρα) rock or stone; myzon, from mýzō (Gr. μύζω) to suck, referring to their suctorial behavior (adults attach to rocks during nest building and mating)

Petromyzon marinus Linnaeus 1758 Latin for “of the sea,” referring to its marine habitat (as a non-breeding adult)

Subfamily LAMPETRINAE Fowler 1938

Caspiomyzon graecus (Renaud & Economidis 2010) from graikós (Gr. γραικός), Greek, “an adjective formed from the noun Graeci, a tribe of Hellenes living since Prehistoric times in the area” where this lamprey occurs [placed in Eudontomyzon by some workers]

Caspiomyzon hellenicus (Vladykov, Renaud, Kott & Economidis 1982) Latinized form of hellenikós (Gr. ἑλληνικός), adjective meaning Greek, referring to the only country where it occurs [placed in Eudontomyzon by some workers]

Caspiomyzon wagneri (Kessler 1870) in honor of Nicolai Petrivitsch Wagner (1829‒1907), Kessler’s colleague at the Zoological Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia; Kessler described this lamprey from a specimen in Wagner’s collection

Entosphenus Gill 1862 entós (Gr. ἐντός) within or inside; sphenus, Latinized from sphēnós (σφηνός), genitive of sphḗn (σφήν), wedge, referring to wedge-shaped tooth within mouth (on tongue) of E. tridentatus

Entosphenus folletti Vladykov & Kott 1976 in honor of Wilbur (“Bill”) I. Follett (1901‒1992), Curator of Fishes, California Academy of Sciences, “friend, a collaborator in the studies of holarctic lampreys, and a distinguished scholar of the fishes of California” [authors incorrectly gave Follett’s name as “William”]

Entosphenus lethophagus (Hubbs 1971) lḗthē (Gr. λήθη), forgetfulness; phagus, from phageín (Gr. φαγεῖν), to eat, i.e., not eating (an adjective), referring to non-parasitic adults, which do not eat before they spawn and die

Entosphenus macrostoma (Beamish 1982) macro-, from makrós (Gr. μaκρóς), long or large; stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, referring to large oral disc compared with E. tridentatus [often declined as an adjective, macrostomus (large-mouthed), but Beamish said name means “large opening,” suggesting he proposed it as an indeclinable noun]

Entosphenus minimus (Bond & Kan 1973) Latin for least, referring to small size, at 12.9 cm, the smallest known parasitic lamprey

Entosphenus similis Vladykov & Kott 1979 Latin for like or resembling, referring to similarity to E. tridentatus

Entosphenus tridentatus (Richardson 1836) tri- (L.), three; dentatus (L.), toothed, referring to “three conspicuous and contiguous teeth” on supraoral tooth plate [name coined by surgeon-naturalist Meredith Gairdner (1809‒1837), who is sometimes credited as the author]

Eudontomyzon Regan 1911 eū́-, a Greek (εὖ) intensive (well or very); odontos, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, referring to numerous radially arranged teeth of E. danfordi; myzon (Gr.), to suck (borrowed from Petromyzon), referring to their suctorial behavior

Eudontomyzon danfordi Regan 1911 in honor of Charles George Danford (1843‒1928), Scottish artist, sportsman and ornithologist, who collected holotype

Eudontomyzon mariae (Berg 1931) in honor of Berg’s second wife Maria (née Ivanova), “who examined many thousands of river lampreys from the mouth of the Neva and other streams, falling into the Finnish Gulf”

Eudontomyzon morii (Berg 1931) in honor of zoologist Tamezo Mori (1884‒1962), Hyogo Agricultural College (Japan), who provided holotype [placed in Lethenteron by some workers]

Eudontomyzon stankokaramani Karaman 1974 in honor of Karaman’s father, biologist Stanko L. Karaman (1889‒1959), founder, Macedonian Museum of Natural History, “the greatest explorer of freshwater fish fauna in Yugoslavia”

Eudontomyzon vladykovi Oliva & Zanandrea 1959 patronym not identified but clearly in honor of Ukrainian-born Canadian lamprey biologist Vadim D. Vladykov (1898‒1986)

Lampetra Bonnaterre 1788 lambo or lambere (L.), I lick or to lick; pétra (Gr. πέτρα), rock or stone, referring to their suctorial behavior (adults attach to rocks during nest building and mating)

Subgenus Lampetra

Lampetra alavariensis Mateus, Alves, Quintella & Almeida 2013 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Alavarium, Latin for Aveiro, Portuguese district where it occurs

Lampetra auremensis Mateus, Alves, Quintella & Almeida 2013 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Aurem, 12th-century name for what is now Ourém, Portuguese region where it occurs

Lampetra ayresii (Günther 1870) in honor of physician-ichthyologist William O. Ayres (1817‒1887), founding member of the California Academy of Sciences, who described this species in 1855 but used a preoccupied name (Petromyzon plumbeus)

Lampetra fluviatilis (Linnaeus 1758) Latin for “of a river,” referring to its upstream river spawning migration

Lampetra hubbsi (Vladykov & Kott 1976) in honor of American ichthyologist Carl L. Hubbs (1894‒1979), “distinguished friend and a keen student of lamprey taxonomy” [placed in Entosphenus by some workers]

Lampetra lanceolata Kux & Steiner 1972 Latin for lance-like, probably referring to how end of body tapers to a lance- or lancet-like point

Lampetra lusitanica Mateus, Alves, Quintella & Almeida 2013 –ica (L.), belonging to: Lusitania, ancient name of Portugal, where it is endemic

Lampetra pacifica Vladykov 1973 –ica (L.), belonging to: Pacific Coast streams of California and Oregon, USA, where it occurs

Lampetra planeri (Bloch 1784) in honor of Johann Jacob Planer (1743‒1789), German physician, botanist and mycologist, who supplied holotype

Lampetra richardsoni Vladykov & Follett 1965 in honor of Scottish surgeon-naturalist John Richardson (1787‒1865), “author of several important works on fishes from North America” [treated as a junior synonym of L. ayresii by some workers]

Lampetra soljani Tutman, Freyhof, Dulčić, Glamuzina & Geiger 2017 in honor of Tonko Šoljan (1907‒1980), for his contribution to the knowledge and development of ichthyology in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Lampetra zanandreai Vladykov 1955 in honor of Giuseppe Zanandrea (1907‒1965), Istituto di Anatomia Comparata della Università di Bologna, “who made several interesting biometrical and biological studies of lampreys from northern Italy”

Lampetra (subgenus Okkelbergia) Creaser & Hubbs 1922 -ia (L. suffix), belonging to: Peter Okkelberg (1880‒1960), University of Michigan, for his “careful studies on the history of the germ cells in lampreys” [treated as a full genus by some workers]

Lampetra aepyptera (Abbott 1860) high-finned, from aipýs (Gr. αἰπύς), high and steep; ptera,  from pterón (Gr. πτερόν) or ptéryx (πτέρυξ), fin referring to enlarged dorsal fins of nuptial males

Lethenteron Creaser & Hubbs 1922 etymology not explained, perhaps lethalis (L.), lethal, or lḗthē (Gr. λήθη), forgetfulness; énteron (Gr. ἔντερον), intestine, presumably referring to “degenerate and non-functional” intestine of adult L. appendix

Lethenteron alaskense Vladykov & Kott 1978 –ense, Latin suffix denoting place: Alaska (USA), where type locality (West Creek, a tributary of Brooks Lake) is situated

Lethenteron appendix (DeKay 1842) Latin for appendage, referring to “thread-like appendix” (genital papilla) on anterior portion of nuptial males (DeKay believed this papilla was appended to the anal fin)

Lethenteron camtschaticum (Tilesius 1811) –icum (L.), belonging to: the Kamchatka, Russia, type locality

Lethenteron kessleri (Anikin 1905) patronym not identified but probably in honor of German-Russian zoologist Karl Fedorovich Kessler (1815‒ 1881), who described Caspiomyzon wagneri in 1870

Lethenteron mitsukurii (Hatta 1901) in honor of zoologist Kakichi Mitsukuri (1857‒1909), Imperial University of Tokyo, who provided “free access” to specimens

Lethenteron ninae Naseka, Tuniyev & Renaud 2009 in honor of ichthyologist Nina G. Bogutskaya (b. 1958), Russian Academy of Sciences, for her contribution to the knowledge of Eurasian freshwater fishes [placed in Lampetra and by some workers]

Lethenteron reissneri (Dybowski 1869) patronym not identified, possibly in honor of Baltic German anatomist Ernst Reissner (1824‒1878)

Tetrapleurodon Creaser & Hubbs 1922 tetrá (Gr. τετρά), four; pleurá (Gr. πλευρά) side; odon, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, referring to four enlarged teeth on each side of mouth of T. spadiceus

Tetrapleurodon geminis Álvarez 1966 Latin for twin, the non-parasitic “twin” of the parasitic T. spadiceus [date often given as 1964]

Tetrapleurodon spadiceus (Bean 1887) Latin for light- or nut-brown, referring to its color