A new species of sea catfish from the eastern Pacific has been described by scientists from the USA and Colombia.
Notarius biffi, a member of the Ariidae family, was described by Ricardo Betancur and Arturo Acero of Auburn University and the National University of Colombia in the ichthyological systematics journal Zootaxa.
The holotype of the new species of catfish, which was used for the basis of the description, was caught in a high-salinity estuary near Bahia La Union in El Salvador, but a number of other biffi were also caught around Puntarenas in Costa Rica.
The catfish, which grows to around 25cm/10" has been named in honour of Dr Eldredge Bermingham of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute labs in Panama, who is known to his friends as "Biff".
Ricardo Betancur and Arturo Acero provide a new key to the members of the Notarius genus in the paper, as well as a redescription of N. insculptus, a species which had been largely forgotten by taxonomists for over 60 years.
For more details see the paper: Ricard Betancur and Arturo Acero (2004) - Description of Notarius biffi n. sp. and redescription of N. insculptus (Jordan and Gilbert) (Siluriformes: Ariidae) from the eastern Pacific, with evidence for the monophyly and limits of Notarius. Zootaxa, 703: 1-20.