Etymology of genus name Pangasius ?

[lfinley58]

Hello,

I have noted that the etymology provided for the genus name Pangasius in the Cat-eLog is as follows: "The name Pangasius comes from a local (Bengali) name of the fish (pungas)." The first fish with the name was the Indian species P. pangasius which would seem to bear out the statement provided.

Fishbase, on the other hand, notes the following origin: "The Vietnamese name of a fish" and references the following publication: "Romero, P., 2002. An etymological dictionary of taxonomy. Madrid, unpublished."

In another source (Catfish Association Great Britain, Magazine 42. 1984) Isaac Isbrucker and Han Nijssen, in their article "Magical Mystery Meaning Or The Etymology Of Scientific Names Of Catfishes" (pp. 14-22,) state the following for Pangasius: "derived from the vernacular name (not spelled out in the original diagnosis)."

So we have at least three variations on the theme out there. There may be others, but these three variants have just kind of jumped out at me. As noted above the PC statement seems to make the most sense, but...

This is an area that Silurus might well be able to help with. HH???

Lee F.