PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Volume 5 1 , No. 1 , pp. 1-1 7. March 29, 1999 Higher-level Names for Catfishes (Actinopterygii: Ostariophysi: Siluriformes) Carl J. Ferraris, Jr. Department of Ichthyology, California Academy of Sciences Golden Gate Park. San Francisco, California 941 1 H and Mario C. C. de Pinna Department oj Zoology, University of Sao Paulo, Caixa Postal 1 1461. Sao Paulo, SP 05422-970, Brazil A comprehensive list is provided of all family-group and other suprageneric names proposed for the order Siluriformes. The list contains 169 names including both available and unavailable names, whether in current usage or not. Dates and authorship for all names are provided. In view of the present intense research activity on catflsh phylogeny and classification, this list will be a useful reference for future work, avoiding unnecessary proposal of new names and facilitating decisions on priority. During the past few decades, there has been a growing interest in the study of higher-level relationships among catfishes (Ostariophysi: Siluriformes). This interest has resulted in several doctoral dissertations and publications on phylogenetic relationships of one or more families of catfishes. A number of these studies have included revisions in the classification of families, with the recognition of additional monophyletic groups above the generic level. Many of these newly-recog-nized suprageneric groups have previously been assigned formal family-level names. Others with informal names will likely be given formal names in the future. The tracing of family-level groups and their dates can be difficult. A number of obscure, but available, names have been proposed in rare or inaccessible publications and others are buried in texts on unrelated groups making their discovery unlikely for the specialist. Because of that, the assignment of family-group names to the classification of various catfish groups has on occasion been mistaken in both the older and modem literature. We believe that the piecemeal correction of these errors is detrimental to the stability of the classification of catfishes. In anticipation of fiiture phylogenetic studies, the results of which may necessitate the recognition of more family-level groups of catfishes, we have attempted to collect all previously proposed names among catfishes. This provides a comprehensive list that will serve as a general reference for future classificatory works on siluriforms. We made an effort to locate all relevant names, whether or not in current use. As groupings of catfish are reexamined, it is possible that two or more currently used names may be synonymous at some level. Following the rules of priority, it would then be necessary to establish which name was proposed first. To that end, we have attempted to provide the earliest use for each of the names. Unlike generic and specific names, use of family-level names has historically been rather informal in ichthyology and, we believe, in zoology as a whole. Names are often cited without 1
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