Ambassis
| Ambassis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Ambassis miops | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Division: | Teleostei |
| Order: | Mugiliformes |
| Family: | Ambassidae |
| Genus: | Ambassis G. Cuvier, 1828 |
| Type species | |
| Centropomus ambassis Lacepède, 1802 | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Ambassis is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Ambassidae, the Asiatic glassfishes. They are found widely in the Indo-Pacific region, with species in fresh, brackish and coastal marine waters.
This genus includes fish known commonly as glassies, perchlets, and common glassfishes.[1] The genus name was derived from the specific epithet ambassis of "Aspro ambassis" Commerçon 1767-1771, which in turn derives from the vernacular name “l’ambasse”, later "l'ambache", used by Philibert Commerçon in his unpublished notes for a small, common fish at Île Bourbon (Réunion). Valenciennes (1867) reported that Commerçon used the term to mean “deux sous”, a 19th-century French euphemism for a cheap or worthless thing, referring to the fish’s abundance and low value.[2] FishBase, However, implies it is from the Greek anabasis, meaning 'climbing up'.[3]
See 
The dictionary definition of deux sous at Wiktionary.
Species
There are currently 19 recognized species in this genus:[4]
- Ambassis ambassis (Lacépède, 1802) – Commerson's glassy
- Ambassis bleekeri Maugé, 1984
- Ambassis buruensis Bleeker, 1856 – Buru glass perchlet
- Ambassis buton Popta, 1918 – Buton glassy perchlet
- Ambassis denticulata Klunzinger, 1870
- Ambassis dussumieri G. Cuvier, 1828 – Malabar glassy perchlet
- Ambassis fontoynonti Pellegrin, 1932 – dusky glass perch
- Ambassis interrupta Bleeker, 1853 – long-spined glass perchlet
- Ambassis kopsii Bleeker, 1858 – Kops' glass perchlet
- Ambassis macracanthus Bleeker, 1849 – estuarine glass perchlet
- Ambassis marianus Günther, 1880 – estuary perchlet
- Ambassis miops Günther, 1872 – flag-tailed glass perchlet
- Ambassis nalua (F. Hamilton, 1822) – scalloped perchlet
- Ambassis natalensis Gilchrist & W. W. Thompson, 1908 – slender glassy
- Ambassis octava Ghazali, Lavoué, Nor, Muhammad-Rasul & Tan, 2023 – Malaysian glass-perchlet
- Ambassis telkara Whitley, 1935
- Ambassis thermalis Cuvier, 1829
- Ambassis urotaenia Bleeker, 1852 – banded-tail glassy perchlet
- Ambassis vachellii J. Richardson, 1846 – Vachelli's glass perchlet
- Synonyms
- Ambassis commersonii (Lacépède, 1802); valid as A. ambassis
- Ambassis gymnocephalus (Lacépède, 1802) (bald glassy); valid as A. ambassis
References
- ↑ "Ambassis". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
- ↑ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (10 February 2026). "Order CICHLIFORMES: Families AMBASSIDAE, GRAMMATIDAE, PLESIOPIDAE, OPISTOGNATHIDAE, POLYCENTRIDAE, EMBIOTOCIDAE and PHOLIDICHTHYIDAE". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
- ↑ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2014). "Ambassis ambassis". FishBase.
- ↑ Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Ambassis". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 23 July 2025.