Synonymies include original descriptions as well as the body of literature 

 containing additional information on the morphology, distribution, and ecology of 

 ageneiosids; lists of references are not purported to be exhaustive, but it is believed 

 that all major accounts dealing with the taxonomy of ageneiosids are included. 

 Additional references can be found in Fowler (1951). 



Inferences of evolutionary relationships were made using the phylogenetic 

 methods of Hennig (1966), as elaborated and espoused by Wiley (1981) and 

 numerous recent studies. Determinations of polarity trends among character states 

 were made by outgroup comparisons of a variety of taxa from personal observations 

 and a survey of available literature on siluroids. Characters of uncertain polarity 

 were treated as unordered in phylogenetic analyses. The Diplomystidae 

 {Diplomystes and Olavaichthys) is generally regarded as the most primitive family of 

 catfishes (Regan 1911, Fink and Fink 1981, Roberts 1973, and Arratia 1987) and 

 was considered to be the basal group for character analyses. The Doradidae and 

 Auchenipteridae were considered as sister groups of the Ageneiosidae, based on the 

 studies of Regan (1911), Eigenmann (1925), Chardon (1968), Britski (1972), 

 Ferraris (1988), and Curran (1989). Within the Auchenipteridae {sensu lata), 

 genera in the "Auchenipterus group" ( = Auchenipterus, Entomocoms, and Epaptems) 

 and Trachelyoptenis were considered to represent the closest sister taxa of the 

 Ageneiosidae following Ferraris (1988) (see section on phylogenetic systematics for 

 a more detailed discussion). Phylogenetic analyses were performed using the 

 computer programs PAUP ("Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony", version 2.4, 

 by David Swofford), and MacClade (version 2.1, by Wayne and David Maddison). 





