Jordan and Evermann. — Fishes of North America. 149 



232. SCHILBEODES FURIOSUS, (Jordan k Meek). 



Yo\xa.oi. SciixlheoAeM mitirus; eyes rather large; barbels moderate, reach- 

 ing gill opening ; dorsal spine 2^ in head ; pectoral spine If in head, much 

 longer, stronger, more curved, and more heavily armed than in any other 

 North American catfish ; anterior margin of spine with many small 

 antrorse teeth, the tip of spine without teeth; inner margin with 7 or 8 

 recurved hooks; adipose fin high, with a deep notch nearly to its base; 

 caudal long, much rounded in outline. Coloration much variegated, the 

 pattern as in S. miiii-its. Light brown, with black dots ; a dusky area 

 between eyes ; a black saddle across occiput ; 1 before and 1 behind 

 dorsal, and 1 on adipose fin; a dusky bar at base of caudal; 3 dark 

 curved streaks across caudal and 2 cross dorsal and anal. Head 3f ; 

 depth 5*. A. 14. L. 5 inches. Eastern North Carolina, known from the 

 Neuse, Tar, and Little rivers. Very close to S. miurus, and probably a 

 geographical variety of that species, from which it differs only in the 

 larger spines. Its sting is more virulent than that of any other "Mad 

 Tom." {fitriosus, furious.) 



Notm-tis furiosH!:, Jordan A' Meek, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1888, 351, Neuse River, N. C. (Type, 



39932.) 

 Notmtis eleiitherui', Jordan A Gilbert, Synopsis 99, 1883, not type. 



8i. RHAMDIA, Bleeker. 

 (Bagres de Rio.) 



Pteronobm, Swainson, Nat. Hist. Fislies, ii, 309, 1839, {qiiiiifi«e-leiilnnilnt>ix); prcocoupifd in 



moUusks. 

 RhamiJia, Bleeker, Ichth. Arch. In<l. Siluri, 1858, 197, (queleii). 

 rimeloiiofns, GiLL, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., iv, 391, 1859, {vilsoni). 

 NotngJaiiis, Gt'NTllER, Cat., v, 13G, 1864, {mulliradiatns). 

 Rhamdella, Eigenmann & Eigenmann, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci., 2d series, i, 129, 1888, {eriarcha). 



Fresh water catfishes with no teeth on the vomer ; the adipose fin 

 more or less elongate ; snout rather broad, not produced; barbels terete 

 or somewhat flattened, not having a broad membranous border. Head 

 not especially widened ; occipital j)rocess small or wanting, not reaching 

 to the dorsal plate ; the fontanelle variously developed, in typical species 

 short, not continued backward beyond the eye> except in the young, in 

 which there are usually 2 bony bridges across the fontanelle, the one 

 behind the eye, the other in front of the occiput ; the depressions behind 

 these bridges persistent, in some old specimens the entire fontanelle 

 becomes obliterated. In the subgenus EhamdcUa, the fontanelle is better 

 developed, extending to base of occipital process. Species numerous, 

 in streams from Mexico southward to Western Peru and the Rio de la 

 Plata. This genus has been divided by Eigenmann into two — Rhdindia 

 and lihamdella* — distinguished by the development of the fontanelle. As 



*Tliis genus Rkamdelhi roiitiiins those species hitherto referred to lihavnlia or to Pimclmliis, in 

 whicli tlie fontanelle is continuod backward to the occipital process, with a bridge acroiss it 

 behind t lie eyes, ^lentral phic ed below or behind the dorsal, orbit with a free niarpin. Two North 

 American species, prlnicinns and jxirnji, are known to belong to Rhatwb'Uu. It is probable that 

 most of the others here mentioned "belong to Uhamdclla rather than to Rhamdia. In Eigen- 

 maun's latest catalogue, uearly all of them are provisionally placed in Rhamdella. 



