Ariopsis Gill, 1861

MP 100, BI 1, ML 99

(Figs 1–3, 16A, 17)

Type species: Arius milberti Valenciennes, 1840 .

Diagnosis (all of ambiguous optimization)

444 • Marceniuk et al.

Third basibranchial chalice shaped (168, 0> 1), reversed in Ariopsis guatemalensis; Müllerian ramus bone blade evident only in basal third (206, 2> 1), state 2 in Ariopsis canteri .

Included species

Ariopsis assimilis Günther, 1864 *

Ariopsis canteri Acero P., Betancur-R. & Marceniuk, 2017 Ariopsis felis Linnaeus, 1766

Ariopsis gilberti Jordan & Williams, 1895 *

Ariopsis guatemalensis Günther, 1864

Ariopsis jimenezi Marceniuk et al., 2017 *

Ariopsis seemanni Günther, 1864

Ariopsis simonsi Starks, 1906 .

Habitat and distribution: Freshwater, brackish, and marine waters, North America, Central America and northern South America (Fig. 16).

Remarks

The total-evidence analysis corroborates the monophyly of Ariopsis and the relationships established by molecular data (Betancur-R. et al. 2007, Betancur-R. 2009), with the same species composition as in the recent revision of the genus (Marceniuk et al. 2017b). The overall morphological similarity of Sciades and Ariopsis is expressed by the synonymy of the genera in previous morphological analyses (Marceniuk and Menezes 2007, Marceniuk et al. 2012).