militaris Bl[och]" (Bleeker 1858:206). Ferraris (1988) regarded Bleeker's type 

 designation as invalid in accordance with articles 69a and 70c(i) of the International 

 Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1985). Ageneiosus valenciennesi was 

 proposed by Bleeker (1864) as a replacement name fory4. militaris Valenciennes 

 (1840). Ceratorhynchi militaris Agassiz (in Spix and Agassiz 1829) represents an 

 unwarranted replacement name for Lacep^de'sy4. armatus; hence the genus and 

 species names are objective synonyms of those of Lacep^de's. As detailed by 

 Ferraris (1988), the first designation of a type species iox Ageneiosus that conforms 

 with current ICZN policy was that of Eigenmann and Eigemnann (1890). Therein, 

 they cited the type oi Ageneiosus as "Ageneiosus armatus type = Silurus militaris 

 Bloch," despite reference to the unavailable name of Bloch. Jordan's (1917:66) 

 designation oi Ageneiosus armatus Lacep^de ( = Silurus militaris L.[innaeus]) as the 

 type species of the genus postdated that of Eigenmann and Eigenmann (1890), and 

 would necessitate the unacceptable synonymization oi Ageneiosus within the 

 Ariidae. ^. -,_,■;:•, . > ■■'"..■. ■•'■'■■'■- -..'^^ ' -'■ 



Identification of the possible taxa to which the epithet inermis was applied is 

 somewhat tenuous. Silurus inermis Linnaeus (1766) was repeated by Bloch (1794), 

 and was listed by Cuvier and Valenciennes (1840) and Eigenmann and Eigenmann 

 (1888), but was considered in the first revision of the group (Eigenmann and 

 Eigenmann 1890) to be a "doubtful species." The original description oi Silurus 

 inermis (Linnaeus 1766:503) is highly suggestive of having been based on the species 

 ndimtdi Ageneiosus brevifilis by most other authors; the specimen(s) that Linnaeus 

 described were from Surinam, an area from which ^4. brevifilis is presently common, 

 and he noted a truncate, weakly bilobed caudal fin, which is a characterisfic feature 

 of ^. brevifilis that is not present in most other members of the family. Moreover, 

 the combined fin ray counts that Linnaeus gave are closest to^l. brevifilis (pectoral 

 rays = 17, anal rays = 38). Giinther (1864) presented the mmt Ageneiosus sebae as 



