Razorbelly scad
| Razorbelly scad | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Family: | Carangidae |
| Genus: | Alepes |
| Species: | A. kleinii |
| Binomial name | |
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Alepes kleinii (Bloch, 1793) |
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| Approximate range of the razor belly scad | |
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The razorbelly scad (Alepes kleinii) (also known as the banded scad, golden scad and goggle-eye scad) is a small species of tropical marine fish in the jack family, Carangidae. The species inhabits coastal waters in the Indo-Pacific, from Pakistan in the west to Japan and Australia in the east, often found over reefs. The razorbelly scad has a complex taxonomic history, and even recently has had its position in the genus Alepes challenged, but appears to be stable after a molecular phylogeny study supported its placement in Alepes. It is very similar to other scads in the same genus, but is readily identified by its unique teeth. Razorbelly scad are predatory fish, taking a variety of crustaceans and shrimps, and show a change in feeding intensity over the year. Reproduction and development has been extensively studied in India, where spawning occurs in a single event from January to September. The species is commonly taken in tropical fisheries, where it is marketed fresh or dried.
The razorbelly scad is classified in the scad genus Alepes, which is part of the jack family, Carangidae. The Carangidae are perciform fishes in the suborder Percoidei.
Like a number of other members of Alepes, the razorbelly scad suffers from a complicated taxonomic history, in which the species has been described and named no less than seven times, and has had three of those names reassigned to different genera. The first person to describe and name the species was the German naturalist Marcus Elieser Bloch in 1793, assigning the name Scomber kleinii putting the species in a genus of mackerel. This was later transferred to the jack genus Caranx and finally to the genus Alepes, which Swainson had created in 1839. This is the currently accepted name, as Bloch was the first to describe the fish, even though he put it in the wrong genus. In a marathon effort of synonymy, Georges Cuvier described the species under three separate names in 1833, of which two were reclassified into Alepes, forming the commonly used junior synonyms of Alepes para and Alepes kalla. The razorbelly scad was described and named three times after Cuvier's efforts by Bleeker, De Vis and Wakiya. In a 1942 review of Caranx kalla, Nichols tried to separate and rationalise a number of synonyms, even suggesting a subspecies of De Vis' Caranx queenslandiae be created. The type specimen of A. kleinii was collected from the Malabar Coast off India. Although commonly called razorbelly scad, and recognised as such by fishbase, the species also is known as banded scad, goggle-eye scad and golden scad.
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