Morphological characterization of the Sinaloa catfish (Ictalurus sp) from Río Culiacán and its comparison with Yaqui catfish (Ictalurus pricei) from northern Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico

Authors: Gorgonio Ruiz-Campos, David Ceseña-Gallegos, Alejandro Varela-Romero, Sergio Sánchez-Gonzáles

Year: 2017 (xlix)

Abstract

In northern Sierra Madre Occidental(SMO) inhabits several native catfishes of the genus Ictalurus, of which the Yaqui catfish (I pricei) is the only currently described South of the Río Fuerte several populations of catfish referred to as Sinaloa catfish are known to occur We performed a morphological comparison between the Sinaloa catfish of the Culiacán River (Ictalurus sp) and Yaqui catfish, including other populations of the SMO The analysis of discriminant function for 45 morphometric and meristic characters in 81 specimens examined yielded 12 characters to be significantly (p<001) different for these compared forms The most discriminant characters were longest dorsal ray length, pectoral spine length, predorsal length, head length, and number of rays in anal and pelvic fins The standardized coefficients for canonical variables 1 and 2 explained 904% of the total variation The catfish of Río Culiacan (Humaya and Tamazula sub-basins) represents a distinct clade that is more associated to the catfish population of Río San Lorenzo, a relationship that has been genetically confirmed The catfish of the Río Culiacán River represents a new biological entity of the SMO