■t-yj 13IO 



MEMOIES 



OF THE 



OAENEGIE MUSEUM. 



Vol. VII. No. 5. 



THE PYGIDIID^, A FAMILY OF SOUTH AMERICAN CATFISHES.^ 



By Carl H. Eigenmann. 

 (Plates XXXVI-LVI.) 



Introduction. 



The Pygidudce are a family of South American catfishes distinguished exter- 

 nally by the absence of an adipose fin and by the posterior position of the dorsal. 

 Most of them are even more readily distinguished by the presence of spines or 

 thorns on the opercle and interopercle, by twin barbels at the angle of the mouth, 

 and by the absence of all mental barbels. Other characters of the catfishes may be 

 present or absent, and by addition, subtraction, or modification of characters, 

 various subfamilies have been formed. A description of the characteristic struc- 

 tures is given on pages 276-279. The basal habit of all the members of the family 

 is that of burrowing. The opercular and interopercular spines are an adaptation 

 to their habit of insinuation, which is at the root of the commensahsm, parasitism, 

 and worse, to which some highly specialized members of the family are addicted. 



Nematogenys from central Chile, the only representative of the Nematogenyince, 

 is probably more nearly like the ancestors of the Pygidiidce than the other living 

 representatives of the family. It recalls the Siluridce by having a pmigent pectoral 

 spine, serrated on its posterior margin, by having but one barbel at the angle of the 

 mouth (the remaining subfamihes having two), by having a pair of mental barbels, 



' Contribution from the Zoological Laboratory of Indiana University, No. 16-1, 



259 



