American Fisheries Society Symposium 35:000–000, 2003 © 2003 by the American Fisheries Society Incorrect Use of the Names Alosidae and Alosid when Referring to the Shads in the Subfamily Alosinae (Teleostei, Clupeidae) JOHN E. OLNEY1 Department of Fisheries Science, School of Marine Science, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, Virginia 23062, USA “‘Must a name mean something?’ Alice asked doubtfully. ‘Of course it must,’ Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh...” (Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, 1872) Abstract.—Fishes in the subfamily Alosinae (the shads, Family: Clupeidae) are properly termed alosine species, alosine clupeids, or alosines. The name “Alosidae” has never been formally presented as a family-level name that included the alosine genus Alosa and has no standing in fish classification. The term “alosid” is similarly meaningless since no fish family name “Alosidae” exists. Scientists, fishery managers, administrators, and the public should avoid these invalid names when referring to the shads. Introduction name ending of a subfamily name is “-inae” (e.g., Alosinae) and its adjectival and lower case nomi- Current classification of the teleostean family nal forms end in “-ine” (in this example, alosine). Clupeidae (Clupeiformes, Clupeoidei) is based on In some cases, names of subfamilies and their tribes the systematic works of Svetovidov (1952), White- have similar spellings such as the subfamily head (1963), and Grande (1985) and has been re- Epinephelinae and its tribe Epinephelini (the grou- viewed recently by Lecointre and Nelson (1996). pers, Pisces, Serranidae). In this case, the accepted The family contains five subfamilies: adjectival and lower case nominal forms of the taxa Dussumieriinae, Pellonulinae, Clupeinae, Alosinae, are epinepheline and epinephelin, respectively and Dorosomatinae. Grande (1985) recognized a (Baldwin and Johnson 1993). Following common monophyletic Clupeidae but concluded that the usage, the adjectival and lower case nominal forms interrelationships of the Clupeinae, Alosinae, and of the clupeid subfamilies are dussumieriine, Dorosomatinae were uncertain. Although these pellonuline, clupeine, alosine, and dorosomatine. phylogenetic problems lack resolution, the classi- fication and nomenclature of these fishes remains stable (Nelson 1994). In recent years, fishery sci- Incorrect Use of the Words Alosidae entists, fishery managers, administrators, and the and Alosid public have introduced incorrect names when re- ferring to fishes of the subfamily Alosinae, com- The family name “Alosidae” has never been for- monly known as shads. This subfamily includes mally presented as a family-level name that in- 31 species in seven genera (Alosa, Brevoortia, cluded the alosine genus Alosa and has no stand- Ethmalosa, Ethmidium, Gudusia, Hilsa, and ing in fish classification. Its adjectival and nominal Tenualosa). form, “alosid,” has no meaning. In the system of naming animal taxa specified Unfortunately, these fictitious names are en- in the International Code of Zoological Nomencla- countered frequently in post-1980 published and ture (ICZN 1999), the name ending of a family name unpublished fishery science literature as well as is “-idae,” as in Clupeidae. By common usage (al- manuscripts in review. In a brief survey for the though not specified in the Code), its adjectival or purposes of demonstrating the error, these names lower case nominal forms end in “-id,” such as in appeared in publications in peer-reviewed journals the phrases “a clupeid fish” or “a clupeid.” The (Crecco and Blake 1983; Dadswell et al. 1986; Aprahamian 1989; Garman 1992; Raabe and Wieland 1993; Chapman et al. 1994; Mathur et al. 1 E-mail: [email protected] 1994, 1996; Dunning et al. 1997; Navodaru 2001), 1 2OLNEY documents relating to management of American rivers Severn and Wye (Britain). Hydrobiologia shad Alosa sapidissima and river herring (Alosa spp.) 179:173–182. (Richkus and DiNardo 1984; ASMFC 1985; ASMFC (Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commis- Winslow 1989; CBEC 1989; CBP 1991; Smith 1996; sion). 1985. Fishery management plan for anadro- Lary 1998), newsletter articles (Varnell 1996; mous alosid stocks of the eastern United States: American shad, hickory shad, alewife, and Dadswell 1997), and contract reports (Cooke and blueback herring. Phase II in interstate manage- Chappelear 1994; Miller et al. 1996, 2002). In addi- ment planning for migratory alosids of the Atlan- tion, these names are frequently encountered in tic coast. ASMFC, Washington, D.C. public documents and discussions posted on the Baldwin, C. C., and G. D. Johnson. 1993. Phylogeny of Internet. The source of this unfortunate epidemic the Epinephelinae (Teleostei:Serranidae). Bulletin may be the first use of the erroneous names in a of Marine Science 52(1): 240–283. series of contract reports to federal agencies dur- CBEC (Chesapeake Bay Executive Council). 1989. ing the 1960s and 1970s (beginning with Davis and Chesapeake Bay alosid management plan. CBEC, Miller [1967]). The erroneous terms appeared in the Annapolis, Maryland. titles of entries in a bibliography of Chesapeake Bay CBP (Chesapeake Bay Program). 1991. Chesapeake Bay alosid, blue crab, bluefish, and weakfish/ library resources (Loesch 1981). In 1981, “a fishery spotted seatrout fishery management plans. CBP, management plan for the anadromous alosid” was Environmental Protection Agency, Annual recommended by an advisory committee of the progress report, Annapolis, Maryland. Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Cooke, D. W., and S. J. Chappelear. 1994. Santee–Coo- (Richkus and DiNardo 1984). Subsequently, the per blueback herring studies. South Carolina De- errors appeared in federal fisheries management partment of Natural Resources, Division of Wild- plans that were distributed widely and then pro- life and Freshwater Fisheries, Rediversion Project, liferated into the fishery science literature. Annual report, January 16, 1994 to September 30, 1994, Charleston. Crecco, V. A., and M. M Blake. 1983. Feeding ecology A Plea for Proper Nomenclature of coexisting larvae of American shad and blueback herring in the Connecticut River. Trans- Fishery scientists, fishery managers, administra- actions of the American Fisheries Society tors, and the public should avoid meaningless and 112:498–507. incorrect names when referring to the shads and Dadswell, M. 1997. Dadswell on invasions and com- should follow international rules and accepted con- petition. The Shad Journal 2(3):2. ventions when using any names of fishes Dadswell, M. J., R. A. Rulifson, and G. R. Daborn. 1986. (Eschmeyer 1990, 1998; ICZN 1999). Reviewers and Potential impact of large-scale tidal power devel- opments in the upper Bay of Fundy on fisheries editors should be watchful for these errors in manu- resources of the Northwest Atlantic. Fisheries scripts. Formal training in systematic ichthyology 11(4):26–35. and nomenclature is encouraged for students of Davis, J., and J. P. Miller. 1967. Biology and utilization fishery science, fishery management, and policy. of anadromous alosids.Virginia Institute of Ma- rine Science, Anadromous fish project annual Acknowledgements progress report, Gloucester Point. Dunning, D. J., J. R. Waldman, Q.E. Ross, and M. Mattson. 1997. Use of Atlantic tomcod and other Thanks to William Eschmeyer (California Academy prey by striped bass in the lower Hudson River of Sciences) who searched his developing family- estuary during winter. Transactions of the Ameri- name database and was unable to find the fictitious can Fisheries Society 126:857–861. family “Alosidae.” The manuscript was improved Eschmeyer, W. N. 1990. Catalog of genera of recent fishes. considerably by the reviews of Victor Springer and California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. G. David Johnson (U.S. National Museum, Eschmeyer, W. N. 1998. Catalog of fishes, volumes 1– Smithsonian Institution). Joel Hoffman and John 3. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. Walter assisted in the epidemiological research. Garman, G. C. 1992. Fate and potential significance of This is VIMS contribution XXXX. postspawning anadromous fish carcasses in an Atlantic coastal river. Transactions of the Ameri- can Fisheries Society 121:390–394. References Grande, L. 1985. Recent and fossil clupeomorph fishes with materials for revision of the subgroups of Aprahamian, M. W. 1989. The diet of juvenile and adult clupeoids. Bulletin of the Museum of Natural twaite shad Alosa fallax fallax (Lacepede) from the History 181:231–372. ALOSINE NOMENCLATURE 3 ICZN (International Commission on Zoological No- Miller, T. J., E. D. Houde, and E. J. Watkins. 1996. Pros- menclature). 1999. International code of zoologi- pects for multi-species management and cal nomenclature, fourth edition. The International sustainability. Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London. Chesapeake Bay Program, Scientific and Techni- Lary, S. J. 1998. Anadromous alosid restoration in the cal Advisory Committee, Perspectives on Chesa- Androscoggin River watershed. Completion re- peake Bay, Annapolis, Maryland. port to the Maine Department of Marine Re- Navodaru, I. 2001. Seaward drift of the Pontic shad sources, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, larvae (Alosa pontica) and the influence of Danube West Boothbay Harbor. River hydrology on their travel path through the Lecointre, G., and G. Nelson. 1996. Clupeomorpha, Danube Delta system. Bulletin Français de la sister-group of Ostariophysi. Pages 193–207 in