Butterfly kingfish

Butterfly kingfish
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Scombriformes
Family: Scombridae
Subfamily: Gasterochismatinae
Lahille, 1903
Genus: Gasterochisma
Richardson, 1845
Species:
G. melampus
Binomial name
Gasterochisma melampus
Synonyms
  • Chenogaster holmbergi
    (Lahille, 1903)
  • Lepidothynnus huttoni
    (Günther, 1889)

The butterfly kingfish (Gasterochisma melampus) is an ocean-dwelling ray-finned bony fish in the mackerel family, Scombridae – a family which it shares with the tunas, mackerels, Spanish mackerels, and bonitos. It, however, represents a lineage distinct from all other scombrids and has therefore been placed in its own genus Gasterochisma and subfamily Gasterochismatinae.

Although taxonomists and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations have accepted the name "butterfly kingfish", this fish has had many common names, including big-scaled mackerel, bigscale mackerel, butterfly mackerel, butterfly tuna, scaled tunny, scaly tuna, and others. In 1993, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave approval for this fish to be marketed simply as "mackerel".