14 Bull. zool. Norn., vol. 42, pt 1, April 1985 
COMMENT ON THE PROPOSAL CONCERNING BAGRUS BOSC, 1816, 
WITH REQUESTS TO PLACE 5/^G/?£CL0QUET, 1816 ON THE OFFICIAL 
LIST AND TO SUPPRESS PORCUS GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE, 1808 
Z.N.(S.)2371 
(see vol. 40, pp. 167-172) 
By William R. Taylor {National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC 
20560. U.S.A.) 
Bailey & Stewart, 1983, asked that Bagrus Bosc, September 1816, be placed 
on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology. They presented evidence to show 
that Bagrus and Porcus Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in Bosc. September 1816 
were described on the same date with Bagrus having page priority. Because Bagrus 
provides the stem of a well-known family name, and because it has had somewhat 
more usage, they requested its conservation by the Commission. 
2. Aside from dates given by Sherbom, 1897, workers have not generally 
known the actual dates of publication of the contributions by Etienne and Isidore 
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire to the Description de I'Egypte. The son, Isidore (1847), hsted 
the significant contributions by his father and himself to this work and gave dates of 
publication. It is now clear that Porcus should be attributed to Etienne Geoffroy 
Saint-Hilaire and that it has several years' priority over Bagrus Bosc. Porcus first 
appeared on plate 15 of the Poissons du Nil issued in 1808; but the description of the 
genus was completed from his father's notes and published by Isidore in 1827. The 
folio-sized natural history plates in Description de I'Egypte were in many cases 
published years before written descriptions appeared; but the names on the plates 
are available by indication (Article 12a(7)). 
3. Evidence that all the plates of Poissons du Nil were published and avail- 
able to Bosc, Cuvier, etc., prior to 1816 is as follows: 
(a) Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire stated ( 1 847, p. 425): 'La part de collab- 
oration de Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire dans le grand ouvrage sur I'Egypte, 
se compose des parties suivantes: Dans I'atlas, t. I" de la partie rela- 
tive a I'histoire naturelle: 1° 7 planches de Mammiferes (17 especes); 
2° 8 de Reptiles (25 especes); 3° 17 de Poissons du Nil (29 especes); 
4° 10 de Poissons de la Mediterranee et de la mer Rouge (28 especes). 
Ces magnifiques planches, dessinees par Redoute jeune, ... en Egypte, 
... a Paris de 1802 a 1807, ont ete publiees, partie en 1808 (Poissons du 
Nil), partie en 1813 (Mammiferes et Reptiles), partie en 1817 (Poissons 
de la mer Rouge et de la Mediterranee). 
'Dans le tome \" du texte de I'Histoire naturelle ... 1° Histoire 
naturelle des Poissons du Nil, 1809 [part]; ... 2" Description des Reptiles 
qui se trouvent en Egypte, 1809 [part]; ... 3° Description des Crocodiles 
d' Egypte, 1829. — Le texte des autres planches de Poissons et de 
Reptiles a ete publie, en 1827, par I'auteur de cet ouvrage, d'apres les 
notes de Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. 
'Dans le tome II . . . Description des Mammiferes qui se trouvent 
en Egypte, 1813 [part]. . .' 
(b) In general agreement with Isidore's summary, Jomard in Monglond, 
1957, columns 323-330, indicated that the 27 plates illustrating fishes 
were published from 1809-1817. I believe, however, that some of the 
dates for the text given by Jomard are probably in error. These dates 
were correctly stated by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. 
Bull. zool. Norn., vol. 42, pt 1 , April 1985 15 
(c) The 17 plates depicting Nile fishes, aside from three illustrating only 
anatomical details, were all cited by Cuvier, November 1816, in Le 
Regne animal, ed. 1, vol. 2. Plates 18 to 27 illustrating Red Sea and 
Mediterranean fishes were not cited in that edition because they were 
not published till 1817. At least six of the plates 18 through 27 were 
cited in the second edition of Le Regne animal, published in 1829. 
(d) Thus it appears certain that the 17 plates of fishes of the Nile appeared 
in 1808 or at the latest 1809, and that plates 18-27 of Mediterranean 
and Red Sea fishes were pubhshed in 1817. 
4. Two species of Porcus were illustrated by H. J. Redoute for Etienne in 
plate 15: Le Bayad fitile, Porcus bayad, and Le Bayad docmac, Porcus docmac. The 
type species of Porcus Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire is Silurus bajad Forskal, 1775 
( = Porcus bayad Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire; it is clear from Isidore's text. Hist, 
nat., vol. 1, p. 303, that Etienne's bayad is an unjustified emendation of Forskal's 
bajad), by subsequent designation by Jordan & Evermann, 1917, Genera of Fishes, 
vol. 1, p. 107. Jordan & Evermann incorrectly said that the description and/or plates 
were published ('dated') in 1817 or 1818. 
5. Bagrus Bosc, 1816. with type species Silurus bajad Forskal by subsequent 
designation by Bailey & Stewart, 1983, op. cit., is a junior objective synonym of 
Porcus Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1808. 
6. Bagre Cloquet, 1816. Bagre is to be treated as masculine because it is 
latinised from the Spanish and Portuguese masculine noun bagre, denoting catfish 
throughout much of tropical America. Its origin is probably from the Arabic baghir 
or baghar. The type species is Silurus bagre Linnaeus, 1 766, by absolute tautonymy, 
through listing in the synonymy of Bagre pimelodinus Cloquet. The descriptions, 
in part, of B. pimelodinus, and of the other included synonym, Pimelodus bagre 
Lacepede, apply not to Silurus bagre Linnaeus but to Silurus marinus Mitchill. I 
suspect that Mitchill's species belongs to another genus and that Bagre bagre 
(Linnaeus) is the only taxonomic species in the genus Bagre. 
7. I support the proposal to place bagridae Bleeker, 1858 on the Official 
List. Bleeker, 1858, pp. V, 49, etc., first used a subfamily 'Bagrichthyoidei' and 
'cohors Bagrini' to include Bagrus and other siluroid fishes. It happens that Bleeker 
had previously described a bagrid fish as Bagrichthys, leading to the false impression 
that that name provides the stem of Bagrichthyoidei. I believe that Bagrus provides 
this stem, by analogy with Bleeker's 'subfamily Plotosichthyoidei and 'phalanx 
Plotosini', both based on the generic name Plotosus. 
8. Because of the long uncertainty as to the dates of publication of Porcus 
and Bagrus, because the latter name has in recent years become widely accepted as 
the generic name for a group of African bagrid fishes, and because it provides the 
stem of its family name, I ask the International Commission on Zoological 
Nomenclature: 
(a) to use its plenary powers to suppress the generic name Porcus Etienne 
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1808, for the purposes of the Principle of 
Priority, but not for those of the Principle of Homonymy; 
(b) to place on the Official List of Generic names in Zoology: 
(i) Bagre Cloquet, 1816 (gender: masculine), type species, by absolute 
tautonymy, Silurus bagre Linnaeus, 1 766; 
(ii) Bagrus Bosc, 1816 (gender: masculine), type species, by 
subsequent designation by Bailey & Stewart, 1983, Silurus bajad 
Forskal, 1775; 
16 Bull. zool. Norn., vol. 42, pt 1, April 1985 
(c) to place on the Official List of Specific Names in Zoology: 
(i) bagre Linnaeus, 1766, as published in the binomen Silurus bagre 
(specific name of type species of Bagre Cloquet, 1816); 
(ii) bajad Forskal, 1775, as published in the binomen Silurus bajad 
(specific name of type species of Bagrus Bosc, 1816); 
(d) to place bagridae Bleeker, 1858 (type genus, Bagrus Bosc, 1816) on 
the Official List of Family-Group Names in Zoology. 
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES 
GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE, ISIDORE. 1847. Vie. travaux. et doctrine 
scientifique d'Etienne Geoffroy Saint- Hilaire par sonfils. Paris, 479 pp. 
LINNAEUS, C. 1766. Sy sterna Naturae, ed. 12, vol. 1. 
MONGLOND, A. 1957. La France revolutionnaire et imperiale. Annates de biblio- 
graphie methodique et description des livres illustres, vol. 8 (annees 
1809-1810). Paris. (JOMARD, E. F., columns 268-343.)