Bagarius
Bagarius (Thai: ปลาแค้) is an Asian genus of catfishes (order Siluriformes) of the family Sisoridae. It includes five to six extant species and potentially one extinct fossil species, B. gigas.
A 2021 study found the giant devil catfish (Bagarius yarrelli) to be synonymous with B. bagarius.[2]
Bagarius species inhabit south and southeast Asia.[4] They are distributed in the Indus drainage in Pakistan and India, east (including peninsular India) to the Red River drainage in Vietnam and south throughout Indochina including the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia.[5] B. bagarius is known from the Ganges River, Chao Phraya, and the Mekong drainages, as well as the Malay Peninsula and the Salween and Mae Klong drainages and the Brahmaputra River and Ayeyarwady River.[5] B. suchus originates from the Mekong and Chao Phraya basins.[5] B. rutilus inhabits the Red River and Ma River in northern Vietnam.[5]
B. gigas is reportedly from the Eocene of Sumatra, but the age of the locale has been questioned.[3]
The oldest known confirmed sisorid fossil is B. bagarius found in Sumatra and India of the Pliocene.[6]
Bagarius species have a broad head that is moderately or strongly depressed. The mouth is broad and terminal or slightly inferior. The gill openings are wide. The dorsal fin and pectoral fins have strong spines. The dorsal fin spine is smooth, and the pectoral fin spine is smooth anteriorly and finely serrate posteriorly. The dorsal, pectoral, and caudal fin lobes sometimes with filamentous extensions. The head and body is entirely or almost entirely covered by heavily keratinized skin superficially differentiated into unculiferous plaques or tubercles. Bagarius species lack a thoracic adhesive apparatus and paired fins are unplaited.[4]
