180 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1888, 



ON THE GENERIC NAME OF THE TUNNY. 

 BY DAVID STARR JORDAN. 



In the first edition of the Regne Animal, 1817, pp. 313, 314, the 

 generic names, Thynnus and Orcynus, were proposed for the Tun- 

 nies. The former name was given to the short-finned tunnies, type 

 Scomber thynnus L., and the latter to the species with long, ribbon- 

 shaped pectorals, type Scomber germo J^siC.=Scomber alatunga (al- 

 <tIonga) Gmelin. 



It has been generally agreed that these two groups are generically 

 identical. Many European writers have continued to use the name 

 Thynnus for both, although this name was much earlier preempted, 

 by Fabricius, for a genus of Insects, 



The name Orcynus is however also preoccupied having been pro- 

 posed by Rafinesque in 1815, in his worthless "Analyse de la Nature," 

 as a substitute for Scombroldes Lacep^de. 



According to current rules of nomenclature, the group of Tunnies 

 is left without a tenable generic name. I therefore propose the name 

 Albacora, for the group of which Scomber thynnus is the type, this 

 species being with others, widely known as Albacore. The subgenus 

 or genus distinguished by the elongate pectorals may be called Germo, 

 its types being Sc. alalonga Gmelin. 



