Cantor originally described the Penang betta as Macropodus pugnax, classifying it alongside the paradise fish (M. opercularis); its specific epithet, pugnax, is Latin for "fighting".
The type specimen came from Assam through the collections of Theodore Edward Cantor based on which Westwood described the key features in Latin, noting specifically the upward curve of the cephalic process with its enlarged and rounded dull-brick-red tip, "apiceque adscendente, et in globum subrotundum, subpellucidum, laete testaceum terminato".
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