A Revision of the Catfish Genus Noturus Rafinesque, 

 With an Analysis of Higher Groups in the Ictaluridae 



Introduction 



This study of the small North American catfishes in the genus 

 Noturus was undertaken to analyze the species and to determine their 

 relationships. It is based on critical examination of most of the many 

 thousand specimens of Noturus now in museums, upon several hundred 

 skeletonized or cleared and stained specimens of catfishes, and upon 

 comparison with most of the other species in the family Ictaluridae. 



The species in the family Ictaluridae appear to constitute six genera, 

 forming three major natural groups. Each group includes one mono- 

 typic genus that is blind, unpigmented, and of restricted subterranean 

 range, and one genus with species that are eyed, pigmented, and of 

 widespread distribution in surface waters. The divisions are: (1) an 

 Ictalurus group including the genus Ictalurus Rafinesque and the blind 

 Trogloglanis patter soni Eigenmann, (2) a Noturus group containing 

 that genus and Prietella phreatophila Carranza, and (3) the Pylodictis 

 group consisting of the large Pylodictis olivaris (Rafinesque) and the 

 eyeless Satan eurystomus Hubbs and Bailey. 



The 23 species of Noturus include one subspecies and ten species 

 that are described here as new. They are arranged in three subgenera: 

 Rabida Jordan and Evermann, Noturus Rafinesque, and Schilbeodes 

 Bleeker. With Prietella, several of their characters are intermediate 

 between those of the Ictalurus group and those of the Pylodictis group. 

 In certain characters they appear to be the most primitive, but they 

 have specialized in several directions, exemplified by loss, reduction, or 

 fusion of some structures and by increase in others. 



Hubbs and Raney (1944) studied much of the available material 

 of Noturus exilis, Noturus insignis, and Noturus gUberti, giving some 

 characters and mapping distributions. However, they incorrectly 

 changed the names of exilis, insignis, and gyrinus to insignis, margin- 

 atum, and mollis, respectively, in the then recognized genus Schilbeodes. 

 Otherwise, no study of the genus Noturus utilizing the existing material 

 has been made since Jordan (1877d) and Swain and Kalb (1883). 



The species of Noturus are mainly active at night, hiding in cavities 

 or beneath objects during daylight. Consequently, they are often most 

 readily collected by using chemicals, direct current electricity, or by 

 seining after dusk. Some of the species appear to be very spottily 



1 



