Horse eye jack
| Horse-eye jack | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Family: | Carangidae |
| Genus: | Caranx |
| Species: | C. latus |
| Binomial name | |
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Caranx latus Agassiz, 1831 |
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| Synonyms | |
The horse-eye jack (Caranx latus) is a gamefish and minor commercial fish in the family Carangidae. It is also known as the big-eye jack, and is similar in appearance to the crevalle jack, although the head of the horse-eye jack is not as blunt. The horse-eye jack is known to feed on smaller fish and on many invertebrates, such as shrimp and crab.
The horse-eye jack is classified within the genus Caranx, one of a number of groups known as the jacks or trevallies. Caranx itself is part of the larger jack and horse mackerel family Carangidae, a group of percoid fishes in the order Perciformes.
The horse-eye jack was first scientifically described in 1831 by the Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz based on a specimen collected from the waters of Brazil. Agassiz published this description, along with a further three carangids, in a volume co-authored with the German biologist Johann Baptist von Spix entitled Selecta Genera et Species Piscium Brasiliensium. The specific epithet latus is Latin for 'broad', and may also refer to the flank of an animal. The new species was placed in the genus Caranx, with one subsequent revision reassigning the species to Xurel, now considered to be a junior synonym of Carangoides. In the same volume that C. latus was described, Agassiz also described Caranx lepturus, which later examination revealed to be synonymous with C. latus. Due to C. latus being described first in the publication, this name takes priority and relegates C. lepturus to junior synonymy. The species has been redescribed and named a further three times, all of which are similarly considered to be junior synonyms. The horse-eye jack is similar in appearance to the bigeye trevally (Caranx sexfasciatus) of the Indo-Pacific region, causing the American ichthyologist John Nichols to describe C latus as a 'form' of C. sexfasciatus. This analysis is no longer accepted, with the two species considered separate.
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