Thorichthys meeki: the firemouth in the wild juan miguel artigas azas :: male T. meeki from Rio Champotón (above)

The type species of the genus was designated by Meek as Thorichthys ellioti. The meaning of the word Thorichthys is defined by Meek as a leaping fish. However, I must confess in many days I have been around this fish I have never see them leaping. They are nevertheless referred in their natural habitat as  Toritos  by local people, a Spanish word meaning  little bulls , in consideration of this cichlid behavior of pairs threaten neighboring conspecifics by opening their gills, lunging and retreating in short distances repeatedly. It is funny how  Toritos  resembles the word Thorichthys.

Regan (1905) in his Revision of the Fishes of the American Cichlid Genus Cichlosoma and of the Allied Genera considered this genus as a section of the Cichlasoma (Regan thought  Cichlosoma  was grammatically more correct than Cichlasoma), but after the decline of this powerful genus (Kullander, 1983), it seems the Thorichthys genus will soon recover its position again. Thorichthys meeki was described as Thorichthys helleri meeki by Brind in 1918, on the basis of aquarium specimens collected in  cenotes  (open wells) near the city of Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico (Hubbs, 1936). The description of this fish was published in an aquarium journal (Aquatic life, 3, May, 1918: 119) and according to Hubbs  not very adequately described and badly figured,  although he is the first to recognize this name should be used. Even with priority over Cichlasoma meeki Hildebrand, who referred to an unrelated species from El Salvador (Cichlasoma guija, Hildebrand 1934). The fish was called by Brind  the scarlet chanchito  describing its life coloration as  a brilliant scarlet suffusion and striping extending from the throat and lower gill covers back and beyond the extremities of the pectoral fins. 

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