Carlarius Marceniuk & Menezes, 2007

MP 100, BI 1, ML 100

(Figs 1–3, 20A, 21)

Type species: Arius heudelotii Valenciennes, 1840 .

450 • Marceniuk et al.

Diagnosis

Mesial border of pterotic with parieto-supraoccipital longer than anterior border with sphenotic (36, 0> 1); epioccipital dorsally visible (41, 0> 1); vomer lateral processes very narrow (53, 0> 1); tooth plates associated with vomer absent (55, 1> 0); first external branchiostegal ray proximally narrow and distally broad (147, 1> 0); posterolateral processes of urohyal almost as long as or longer than distal portion of bone (162, 1> 0).

Ambiguous optimization: Opercle posterior portion not well developed posteriorly (129, 1> 0), state 1 in Carlarius heudelotii .

Included species

Carlarius gigas (Boulenger, 1911) * sedis mutabilis

Carlarius heudelotii Valenciennes, 1840

Carlarius latiscutatus Günther, 1864

Carlarius parkii Günther, 1864 .

Habitat and distribution: Fresh and brackish waters, western Africa (Fig. 20).

Remarks

The total-evidence analysis corroborates the monophyly and species composition of Carlarius as uncovered previously by morphological and molecular studies (Marceniuk and Menezes 2007, Betancur-R. 2009, Marceniuk et al. 2012), but without consensus regarding its relationships in the MP, BI, and ML analyses.