salmonis

Salmonis is the genitive singular form of the Latin noun Salmo, meaning "of the salmon." In biological nomenclature, salmonis is commonly used as the specific epithet in scientific names to indicate an association with salmon, either through host relationship or origin.

Examples of its usage include Piscirickettsia salmonis, a Gram-negative bacterium that infects salmon and is the agent of salmonid rickettsial syndrome in farmed fish. Another example is Vibrio salmonicida, a bacterium linked to disease in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in cold-water environments. In these cases, the epithet salmonis signals the organism’s ecological connection to salmon hosts.

Taxonomic note: salmonis is a Latin genitive form and does not represent a standalone taxon. It functions as part of binomial names or higher classifications to differentiate species and indicate association with salmon. The standard convention in binomial nomenclature is to capitalize the genus name, use a lowercase species epithet, and present the full name in italics when typeset.

Related concepts include the taxonomy of salmonids (family Salmonidae), which comprises genera such as Salmo and Oncorhynchus, where the epithet salmonis may appear in secondary parasites, pathogens, or commensal organisms described from salmon hosts. The use of host-related epithets like salmonis reflects a long-standing practice in taxonomy to encode ecological or epidemiological information within scientific names.