CATFISH GENUS NOTURUS RAFINESQUE 177 



In cleared and stained specimens from Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, 

 and Michigan: vertebrae anterior to the anal origin 12 (12) or 13 

 (2) ; ossified pectoral radials tightly fused (9 sides) or variously joined 

 or separate (25 sides). The partially fused radials may have the two 

 ends fused but the middle parts unjoined and separated by a space, 

 or have one or both ends of each radial free from the other element. 



In life, body pinkish, yellowish, or medium tan with markings 

 varying from brown to dark gray, or black. In preservation, body 

 yellowish or pinkish; side usually mottled with light brown, heavily 

 pigmented; head dark brown above, with a dark bar crossing back of 

 head to operculum and branchiostegal membrane; another brown 

 band extending from the snout backward passes beneath the eye, 

 below a light brown spot back of eye, and to the bar on the operculum; 

 anterior naris and cheek pale; upper barbels heavUy pigmented with 

 brown; mental barbels and lower lip with scattered dark pigment; 

 lower surface of the head immaculate only at midline, otherwise with 

 scattered brown pigment; abdomen immaculate except for a bridge of 

 brown pigment just in front of pelvic fins and round brown chroma- 

 tophores in the area back of isthmus and between pectoral fins; pel vie 

 fin with some pigment below, mottled mth browTi above, especially 

 near base; pectoral fin blotched, with an immaculate edge; front edge 

 of pectoral spine whitish; anal fin dusky gray near base, wdth scattered 

 brown pigment outward, a single submarginal brown band, margin 

 unpigmented; tip of dorsal spine creamy white, spine otherwise dark 

 brown; dorsal fin with a basal dusky gray area, then a clear area, a 

 subterminal dark brown band, and a white edge; caudal fin yellowish 

 white with two distinct crescentic brown bands (the inner obscured 

 in some Ohio specimens b}^ a dusky basicaudal blotch) which bend 

 forward, the subterminal band uniting with the midcaudal band and 

 passing onto the procurrent caudal rays and thence to the caudal 

 peduncle; tip of fin and area between bands and peduncle yellowish 

 white; band (bar) on caudal peduncle indistinct; adipose fin becoming 

 dusky with age, especially near base, margin whitish; blackish adipose 

 blotch extends from base one-half to four-fifths of the distance across 

 fin; base of the blotch extending posteriorly and connected on the side, 

 anteriorly, with a dark saddle between the dorsal and adipose fins, 

 the connection outlining a yellowish area at anterior end of adipose fin; 

 anterior brown saddle extending to below the lateral line, forward to 

 midway between the dorsal spine and head, enclosing a pair of light 

 yellowish white spots, and backward to the third dorsal ray; the light 

 spots are variable in size, but are seldom indistinct; predorsal area 

 light grayish brown; area over air bladder grayish. 



