Calamus is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Sparidae, the seabreams and porgies. Most of the species in this genus are found in the Western Atlantic Ocean, with 2 species occurring in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Calamus was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1839 by the English zoologist William John Swainson when he described Calamus megacephalus as its only species.[1] The type locality of C. megacephalus was given as Martinique, it was later found to be a junior synonym of Pagellus calamus, described by Achille Valenciennes in 1830. This genus is placed in the family Sparidae within the order Spariformes by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World.[2] Some authorities classify this genus in the subfamily Sparinae,[3] but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sparidae.[2]
Calamus means "quill", an allusion to what Swainson described as “the second anal-fin spine, hollow, shaped as a pen".[1] The name of the senior synonym of the type species is, therefore, not a tautonym.[4]
Calamus contains the fiollowing recognized species: