Bonitos are a tribe of medium-sized,

ray-finned Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

predatory fish in the family

Scombridae The mackerel, tuna, and bonito family, Scombridae, includes many of the most important and familiar food fishes. The family consists of 51 species in 15 genera and two subfamilies. All species are in the subfamily Scombrinae, except the butterfly ...

– a family it shares with the

mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...

, tuna, and Spanish mackerel tribes, and also the butterfly kingfish. Also called the tribe Sardini, it consists of eight species across four

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

; three of those four genera are monotypic, having a single species each. Bonitos closely resemble the

skipjack tuna The skipjack tuna (''Katsuwonus pelamis'') is a medium-sized perciform fish in the tuna family, Scombridae. It is otherwise known as the balaya (Sri Lanka), bakulan/kayu (North Borneo), tongkol/aya (Malay Peninsula/Indonesia), aku (Hawaii), cakal ...

, which is often called a bonito, especially in Japanese contexts.

Etymology

The fish's name comes from the Portuguese and Spanish ''bonito'' (there's no evidence of the origin of the name), identical to the adjective meaning 'pretty'. However, the noun referring to the fish seems to come from the low and medieval Latin form ''boniton'', a word with a strange structure and an obscure origin, related to the word ''byza'', a possible borrowing from the Greek βῦζα, 'owl'.'' Oxford English Dictionary'', 3rd edition, 2018
''s.v.''
/ref>

Species

* Genus ''

Sarda Sarda may refer to : Places and jurisdictions * Sarda (Albanian Sardë), a ruined ancient town, on Shurdhah Island in northern Albania. * The former Diocese of Sarda, now a Latin Catholic titular see * Sarda river, a river which forms part of t ...

'' (

Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier was a major figure in nat ...

, 1832) ** Australian bonito, ''S. australis'' (Macleay, 1881) ** ''

Sarda chiliensis ''Sarda chiliensis'', the eastern Pacific bonito, is a marine species of bonito. It ranges from Ecuador to Chile. ''Sarda lineolata Pacific bonito, ''Sarda lineolata'', is a marine species of bonito that is a game fighter but not highly thought ...

'' (Cuvier, 1832) ** Eastern Pacific bonito, ''S. c. chiliensis'' (Cuvier, 1832) ** Pacific bonito, ''S. c. lineolata'' ( Girard, 1858) ** Striped bonito, ''S. orientalis'' ( Temminck & Schlegel, 1844) ** Atlantic bonito, ''S. sarda'' (

Bloch Bloch is a surname of German origin. Notable people with this surname include: A–F * (1859-1914), French rabbi *Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881-1925), Austrian entrepreneur *Albert Bloch (1882–1961), American painter * (born 1972), German motor journal ...

, 1793) * Genus '' Cybiosarda'' ( Whitley, 1935) **

Leaping bonito The leaping bonito (''Cybiosarda elegans'') is a species of saltwater finfish from the Scombridae (Mackerel) family. Scombridae includes such tribes as the mackerels, tunas, and bonitos – the latter of which, the Sardini tribe, this fish is a ...

, ''C. elegans'' (Whitley, 1935) * Genus ''

Gymnosarda The dogtooth tuna ''Gymnosarda unicolor'', also known as white tuna, is a species of pelagic marine fish which belongs to the family Scombridae. Description The dogtooth tuna can reach a length of in males and a weight of .Collette, B.B. and C. ...

'' Gill, 1862 ** Dogtooth tuna, ''G. unicolor'' ( Rüppell, 1836) * Genus '' Orcynopsis'' Gill, 1862 ** Plain bonito, ''O. unicolor'' (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817)

As food

Pacific and Atlantic bonito meat has a firm texture and a darkish color, as well as a moderate fat content. The meat of young or small bonito can be of light color, close to that of

, and is sometimes used as a cheap substitute for skipjack, especially for canning purposes, and occasionally in the production of cheap varieties of

katsuobushi is simmered, smoked and fermented skipjack tuna (''Katsuwonus pelamis'', sometimes referred to as bonito). It is also known as bonito flakes. ''Katsuobushi'' or similarly prepared fish is also known as . Shaved ''katsuobushi'' and dried ke ...

that are sold as ''bonito flakes''. Bonito may not, however, be marketed as tuna in all countries. The Atlantic bonito is also found in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, where it is a popular food fish, eaten grilled, pickled (''

lakerda Lakerda is a pickled bonito dish eaten as a mezze in the Balkans and Middle East.Diane Kochilas, ''The Glorious Foods of Greece'', 2001, , p. 20excerpt/ref> ''Lakerda'' made from one-year-old bonito migrating through the Bosphorus is especiall ...

''), or baked.

References

Citations

Sources