82 
Noel M. Burkhead, et al. 
Jenkins et al. 1972; Lee et al. 1976; Stauffer et al. 1978) reported I. fur- 
catus from the Potomac based on records of Schwartz (1961). Frank J. 
Schwartz (pers. comm.) later felt that these specimens were “odd /. 
punctatus"\ no Potomac /. furcatus were found in collections of 
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Lfniversity of North Carolina In- 
stitute of Marine Sciences, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science, 
which house Schwartz’s collection (F. Schwartz, J. Stauffer, J. Gourley, 
pers. comm.). Ictalurus furcatus has not been collected in recent extensive 
surveys of the Potomac River from Maryland— West Virginia (Energy 
Impact Associates), along Virginia above Great Falls (E. Enamait, pers. 
comm.), or from Washington, D.C., downstream (J. Gourley, pers. 
comm.). If ever introduced into the Potomac River near Washington, 
D.C., it probably shares extirpated status with Percopsis omiscomaycus 
(Walbaum) and Percina caprodes (Rafmesque). 
In the New drainage, /. furcatus was reported introduced into the 
West Virginia section (Schwartz in Jenkins et al. 1972), but no specimens 
were seen. Cope’s (1868) record of /. “caerulescens” in the Virginia sec- 
tion was based on /. punctatus (Fowler 1945:81). Addair’s (1944) records 
from West Virginia of /. “anguilla’ probably are of only /. punctatus. His 
New River, West Virginia, specimens at the UMMZ are /. punctatus. 
Hocutt et al. (1978) listed I. furcatus as a hypothetical inclusion to the 
Greenbrier River fauna based on Addair (1944). Ross (1959) repeated 
reports by game wardens of “blue catfish” from the New River in three 
Virginia counties. Also, a single record was reported (specimen discar- 
ded) by personnel of the VCGIF from Claytor Lake, New River im- 
poundment. The above two reports of I. furcatus are considered to be of 
I. punctatus, based on the absence of I. furcatus from extensive New River 
surveys by Hocutt et al. (1973), Stauffer et al. (1975, 1976) and others, 
and because nonspotted channel catfish have often been misidentified as 
blue catfish. 
Ictalurus melas. — The black bullhead probably is native to Virginia in 
only the Tennessee and Big Sandy drainages. Until recent collections in 
the Roanoke drainage, it was thought to be absent from Atlantic slope 
drainages. Hence, we considered records of collections and literature 
compilations (Abbott et al. 1977) for I. melas to be I. nebulosus, a species 
with which it is sometimes confused. However, recent records from 
Belews Lake (see I. brunneus), from Dan River above Belews Lake, North 
Carolina (UNC 76-93), from two Virginia tributaries of Kerr Reservoir, 
and two specimens (UMMZ 138480) taken in 1940 from the North 
Carolina section of the upper Peedee drainage, prompted us to reconsider 
records from the Atlantic slope. Collections of I. nebulosus from the 
Roanoke drainage (including Kerr Reservoir preimpoundment collec- 
tions and the Chowan system) in Virginia were examined, and no I. melas 
were discovered. Also, none were reported from extensive surveys of the 
North Carolina parts of the Roanoke and Chowan systems (Smith 1963; 
Carnes 1965). The absence of I. melas from earlier collections strongly 
