Logo image
Taxonomic discrimination and identification of extant blue catfishes (Siluriformes: Ictaluridae: Ictalurus furcatus Group)
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Taxonomic discrimination and identification of extant blue catfishes (Siluriformes: Ictaluridae: Ictalurus furcatus Group)

Rocio Rodiles-Hernandez, John G. Lundberg and John P. Sullivan
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, v 159(1), pp 67-82
01 Oct 2010

Abstract

Biodiversity & Conservation Ecology Environmental Sciences & Ecology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology
Three species of the Ictalurus furcatus Group (genus Ictalurus) are recognized: I. furcatus, I. meridionalis and I. balsanus. These species are differentially diagnosed by characters of the bony skeleton, tin-ray and vertebral counts, morphometrics and coloration. Ictalurus balsanus is distinctive in having a relatively short supraoccipital process, anterior nuchal plate and posterior cleithral process, weakly developed pectoral-tin spine ornamentation, and an elongated posterolateral premaxillary process. Ictalurus furcatus and I. meridionalis are closely similar species but are clearly distinguished by features of the pectoral-fin spine ornamentation, supraoccipital process shape and texture, posterior cleithral process shape, numbers of anal-fin rays and vertebrae, and related proportional measurements of anal-fin and caudal peduncle length. Apparent differences among the three species in maximum size and coloration are also noted. A limited sample of molecular sequence data from the 12S/16S mitochondrial DNA loci is consistent with morphology-based results indicating that I. meridionalis is a species distinct from I. furcatus, and that I. balsanus is the most divergent species of the three. Ictalurus furcatus and I. meridionalis exhibit inter-river basin variation in numbers of vertebrae and anal-fin rays.

Metrics

10 Record Views
17 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#15 Life on Land
#14 Life Below Water

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Biodiversity Conservation
Ecology
Logo image