these authors generally appeared to have grouped together taxa on the basis of 

 presumed evolutionary relationships. However, their classifications were based 

 largely on superficial similarities of external morphology, and thus often involved 

 primitive characters shared among purportedly related groups. Many of the 

 suprageneric categories recognized in early studies, such as the broadly 

 encompassing families Siluroidei of Bleeker (1862) and Siluridae of Gunther (1840) 

 and Eigenmann and Eigenmann (1890), were eventually found to be polyphyletic by 

 subsequent authors. Notwithstanding, a relatively close relationship of taxa 

 currently placed in the Ageneiosidae, Auchenipteridae, and Doradidae was 

 advanced by these authors, in the form of subgroups within their various 

 classifications. Although there has been considerable shifting of taxa within these 

 groups, all three have persisted as a larger, cohesive unit in nearly all classifications 

 to the present. 



Bleeker (1862) grouped Ageneiosus, Tetranematichthys, and Pseudageneiosus 

 together (as "phalanx" Ageneiosi) with Pangasius and allied genera, as a subgroup 

 ("stirps" Pangasini) of his much larger "subfamily" Bagriformes. They were not, 

 however, listed close to the genera presently placed in the Doradidae or 

 Auchenipteridae, which were given separate rank, near genera currently placed in 

 the Mochokidae. 



Gunther (1864) lumped the various doradoid taxa together in his group 

 Doradina, within a subfamily (Stenobranchiae) that also included as separate groups 

 some species currently placed in the families Cetopsidae, Mochokidae, and 

 Malapteruridae. The mochokid genus Synodontis was placed within Giinther's 

 Doradina. His diagnosis of the entire subfamily was based on the anterior position 

 of the rayed dorsal fin, when present, and fusion of the gill membranes to the 

 isthmus, neither character of which is confined to these taxa among catfishes. 





