Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 58(4) December 2001 297 
Case 2661 
macropodinae Liem, 1963 (Osteichthyes, Perciformes): proposed 
emendation of spelling to macropodusinae, so removing the 
homonymy with macropodidae Gray, 1821 (Mammalia, Marsupialia) 
Maurice Kottelat 
Route de la Baroche 12, Case post ale 57, 2952 Cornol, Switzerland (address 
for correspondence); Department of Biological Sciences, National University 
of Singapore, Kent Ridge, Singapore 119260 (e-mail: mkottelat@dplanet.ch) 
Abstract. The family-group name macropodinae Liem, 1963 (Osteichthyes, Perci- 
formes, family osphronemidae, belontiidae or anabantidae) is a junior homonym of 
macropodidae Gray, 1821 (Mammalia, Marsupialia). Both names are in use and 
refer, respectively, to a group of anabantoid fishes (labyrinth fishes) from South, 
Southeast and East Asia and to the kangaroos and wallabies of Australia (including 
Tasmania) and New Guinea. The senior homonym is much older and has 
been considerably more widely used than the junior and it is proposed that the 
homonymy be removed by changing the spelling of the fish family-group name to 
macropodusinae by using the whole name of the type genus Macropodus La Cepede, 
1801 as the grammatical stem, while leaving the mammalian name (based on 
Macropus Shaw & Nodder, 1790) unchanged. The names of Macropus and of its type 
species, M. giganteus Shaw & Nodder, 1790, were placed on Official Lists in Opinion 
760 (January 1966). 
Keywords. Nomenclature; taxonomy; Mammalia; Marsupialia; Osteichthyes; 
Perciformes; MACROPODIDAE; OSPHRONEMIDAE; BELONTIIDAE; ANABANTIDAE; 
macropodusinae; Macropus; Macropodus; kangaroos; wallabies; anabantoid fishes; 
labyrinth fishes; Australia; Tasmania; New Guinea; Southeast Asia. 
1. In 1790 Shaw & Nodder (text and pi. 33) described and illustrated the new genus 
and species Macropus giganteus, the grey kangaroo from Eastern Australia and 
Tasmania. The names of Macropus and of M. giganteus were placed on Official Lists 
in Opinion 760 (January 1966), the species being defined by the male neotype 
(catalogue number J. 10749 in the Queensland Museum, Brisbane) proposed in 1964 
by Kirkpatrick & Woods (BZN 21: 249-250) and by Calaby & Ride (BZN 21: 254). 
2. Gray (1821, p. 308) established the family-group macropidae based on 
Macropus, which was subsequently corrected by Owen (1839, pp. 16, 19) to 
macropodidae. The latter name has subsequently been universally used for the 
kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos of Australia (including Tasmania) and New 
Guinea. The family currently includes some 10 genera and 50 species, and a number 
of fossil taxa are known from the Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene. 
3. La Cepede (1801, p. 416, pi. 16, fig. 1) established the name Macropodus for the 
paradise fish, with M. viridiauratus La Cepede, 1801 (p. 416) as the single included 
species. Species of Macropodus are now known from much of East. Asia (from 
298 Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 58(4) December 2001 
Vietnam to Japan and Korea), have been accidentally introduced to Laos and 
Cambodia and probably a few other countries, and are commonly reared for the 
aquarium trade. Species from India referred to Macropodus (even in the recent 
literature) are, in fact, Pseudosphromenus. 
4. Liem (1963, p. 47) established the family-group name macropodinae for one of 
three groups in the family belontiidae Liem, 1963, setting out (p. 73) the morpho- 
logical characteristics of each group. Liem's (1963) subfamily included the genera 
Macropodus, Parosphromenus Bleeker, 1877, Trichopsis Canestrini, 1860, Malpulutta 
Deraniyagala, 1937 and Betta Bleeker, 1850. Subsequently, Vierke (1975) added 
Pseudosphromenus Bleeker, 1879 and these six genera are the currently accepted 
constituents of the subfamily (see Britz, 2001). Members of the subfamily are found 
in South, Southeast and East Asia, from Sri Lanka to Japan and Korea, and to 
Indonesia. 
5. The relationships within anabantoid fishes have not been the subject of many 
studies since Liem (1963) (although there have been a considerable number of 
publications on species taxonomy, ecology and ethology). The name macropodinae 
has been seldom used. However, recent work on the group (see Britz, 2001; Britz 
& Cambray, 2001, and Freyhof & Herder, 2002) has resulted in the name being 
brought back into use. It has been used by these authors for a subfamily of the 
osphronemidae but in the future may well be required at family level. Britz (2001, 
p. 261) recorded that the name macropodinae Liem, 1963 was a junior homonyn 
of the marsupial family-group name macropodidae Gray, 1821, and that an 
application to deal with the homonymy had been submitted to the Commission. 
To remove the homonymy I propose that the fish name be emended to macro- 
podusinae, by using the full generic name Macropodus as the stem, while leaving 
the well known and much used marsupial family name unaltered. 
6. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature is accordingly 
asked: 
(1) to use its plenary power to rule that for the purposes of Article 29 of the Code 
the stem of the generic name Macropodus La Cepede, 1801 (Osteichthyes) is 
macropodus-; 
(2) to place on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology the name 
Macropodus La Cepede, 1801 (gender: masculine), type species by monotypy 
Macropodus viridiauratus La Cepede, 1801 (Osteichthyes); 
(3) to place on the Official List of Specific Names in Zoology the name 
viridiauratus La Cepede, 1801, as published in the binomen Macropodus 
viridiauratus (specific name of the type species of Macropodus La Cepede, 1801) 
(Osteichthyes); 
(4) to place the following names on the Official List of Family-Group Names in 
Zoology: 
(a) macropodidae Gray, 1821, type genus Macropus Shaw & Nodder, 1790 
(Marsupialia); 
(b) macropodusinae Liem, 1963, type genus Macropodus La Cepede, 1801 
(spelling emended by the ruling in (1) above) (Osteichthyes); 
(5) to place on the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Family-Group Names 
in Zoology the name macropodinae Liem, 1963 (spelling emended to macro- 
podusinae by the ruling in (1) above) (Osteichthyes). 
Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 58(4) December 2001 299 
References 
Britz, R. 2001. The genus Betta - monophyly and intrarelationships, with remarks on 
the subfamilies Macropodinae and Luciocephalinae (Teleostei: Osphronemidae). 
Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwater s, 12: 305-318. 
Britz, R. & Cambray, J. 2001. Structure of egg surfaces and attachment organ in anabantoids. 
Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwater s, 12: 267-288. 
Freyhof, J. & Herder, F. 2002. Review of the paradise fishes of the genus Macropodus with the 
description of two new species (Perciformes: Osphronemidae). Ichthyological Exploration 
of Freshwater s, 13. 
Gray, J.E. 1821. On the natural arrangement of vertebrose animals. London Medical 
Repository, 15: 296-310. 
La Cepede, B. 1801. Histoire naturelle des poissons, vol. 3. 558 pp., 34 pis. Plassan, Paris. 
Liem, K.F. 1963. The comparative osteology and phylogeny of the Anabantoidei (Teleostei, 
Pisces). Illinois Biological Monographs, 30: 1-149. 
Owen, R. 1839. Outlines of a classification of the Marsupialia. Proceedings of the Zoological 
Society of London, 1839(7): 5-19. 
Shaw, G & Nodder, F.P. 1790. Pis. 16-37 in: The naturalist's miscellany, or colored figures of 
natural objects: drawn and described . . .from nature, vol. 1. London, (see Sherborn, CD., 
1895, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, (6)15: 375 for the dates of publication of 
the parts of this work). 
Vierke, J. 1975. Beitrage zur Ethologie und Phylogenie der Familie Belontiidae (Anabantoidei, 
Pisces). Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie, 38: 163-199. 
Comments on this case are invited for publication (subject to editing) in the Bulletin; they 
should be sent to the Executive Secretary, I.C.Z.N., c/o The Natural History Museum, 
Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, U.K. (e-mail: iczn@nhm.ac.uk).