[3] Cepola was first formally described as a genus in 1764 by Carolus Linnaeus with Ophidion macrophthalmum as the type species by monotypy.

It is likely derived from cepollam or cepulam, which in 1686 was said by Francis Willughby to be local names among Roman fishermen for the similar "Fierasfer", a pearlfish, to which Linnaeus believed Cepola macrophthalma was related.

As well as this, in 1872 Giovanni Canestrini reported that in Naples the common name for C. macropthalma is Pesce cipolia meaning "onion fish".

[6] Cepola bandfishes are found in the eastern Atlantic, Indian and Western Pacific Oceans, including the Mediterranean Sea.

They create burrows in flat areas of sand and mud substrates, feeding on zooplankton.