channel catfish
Ictalurus punctatus (Rafinesque, 1818)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Photographed at Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in Yankton, SD by Sam Stukel (USFWS).
USFWS Mountain Prairie · Public domain · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), known informally as the "channel cat", is a species of catfish native to North America. They are North America's most abundant catfish species, and the official state fish of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Tennessee. The channel catfish is the most fished species of catfish in the United States, with around 8 million anglers angling them per year. The popularity of channel catfish for food has contributed to the rapid expansion of this species' aquaculture in the United States. It has also been widely introduced to Europe, Asia and South America, and many countries consider it an invasive species.
Wikipedia contributors, Channel catfish; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T04:57:56.951347+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Ictalurus punctatus (Rafinesque, 1818)
- Name authority
- (Rafinesque, 1818)
- Common name
- channel catfish
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Siluriformes
- Family
- Ictaluridae
- Genus
- Ictalurus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: no · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderSiluriformes
- familyIctaluridae Gill, 1861
- genusIctalurus Rafinesque, 1820
- speciesIctalurus punctatus (Rafinesque, 1818)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Ictalurus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| blue catfishIctalurus furcatus (Valenciennes, 1840) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Río Verde CatfishIctalurus mexicanus (Meek, 1904) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Yaqui CatfishIctalurus pricei (Rutter, 1896) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Ictalurus nazas Avila-Treviño, Cardoza-Martínez, Alonzo-Rojo & Pérez-Rodríguez, 2025 | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Ictalurus australis (Meek, 1904) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Balsas CatfishIctalurus balsanus (Jordan & Snyder, 1899) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Headwater CatfishIctalurus lupus (Girard, 1858) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Ictalurus meridionalis (Günther, 1864) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Chapala CatfishIctalurus ochoterenai (de Buen, 1946) | IctaluridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Silurus punctatus Rafinesque, 1818 Rafinesque, 1818 | ambiguous synonym |
| Ictalurus lacustris punctatus (Rafinesque, 1818) (Rafinesque, 1818) | synonym |
| Ictalurus anguilla Evermann & Kendall, 1898 Evermann & Kendall, 1898 | synonym |
| Pimelodus nigricans Lesueur, 1819 Lesueur, 1819 | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=465537 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3PB88. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.