ALL CATFISH SPECIES PROJECT

MEMORANDUM

To: U.S. participants: Warren Burgess, Brooks Burr, John Friel, Michael Hardman, Dean Hendrickson, Michael Littman, Heok Hee Ng, Leo Nico, Paulo Petry, Michael Retzer, Scott Schaefer, Robert Schmidt, Donald Stewart, Richard Vari, Stephen Walsh

From: Larry Page (l-page1@uiuc.edu), John Lundberg (lundberg@acnatsci.org), Mark Sabaj (sabaj@acnatsci.org), Carl Ferraris (cferraris@email.msn.com), and Jonathan Armbruster (armbrjw@mail.auburn.edu.)

Re: ALL CATFISH SPECIES PROJECT

Date: 7 June 2002

Greetings: We heard from all but two of the potential U.S. participants we contacted for the ALL CATFISH SPECIES PROJECT, and all but one of the responses was positive. There are now 20 of us involved to one degree or another in the project. As we stated before, we believe that the project has the potential to produce a very large amount of information on the diversity of fishes and, ultimately, information on many aspects of biodiversity. We are very encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response (and appreciate the questions and concerns, including those yet to come).

For those of you attending the ASIH meeting in Kansas City, we will meet as a group from 6-8pm on Friday, July 5, in the Senators Room on the 5th Floor of the Conference Hotel. Please plan to attend and bring your questions and suggestions for the project.

The next step is to contact potential non-U.S. participants. At the end of this message we have listed the names of potential non-U.S. participants we know to be working on catfishes. Please look at the list and suggest additional participants who may wish to be involved. If you have addresses for any that are without addresses, or know that the addresses we have are incorrect, please fill in the correct information. Email addresses are highly preferred but other addresses will suffice. Thanks very much for your help on this, and please send us whatever information you have by June 14.

Secondly, please think about your level of involvement in the project. We will need information from you soon. In particular, please think about the following:
What taxa of catfishes are you working on and plan to work on for this project?
What is your timetable for completing work on particular taxonomic groups?
What kind and level of support would best enable you to complete your portion of this project? (Keep in mind that we will have a large number of participants and funding support will be spread thin).

Thanks again for interest and your help!

DRAFT MESSAGE TO POTENTIAL NON-U.S. PARTICIPANTS
(TO BE SENT O/A 21 JUNE, 2002)

We are preparing a proposal to be submitted to the Biotic Surveys & Inventories Program (BS&I) of the U.S. National Science Foundation and are contacting you to solicit your input and participation in the project.

The objective of the BS&I Program is species-level discovery and description. We are proposing to conduct a five-year inventory that will result in the descriptions of all of the catfishes of the world. Catfishes are selected because they are the most diverse clade of fishes with a worldwide distribution, they are the subject of investigation by a large number of scientists and, as we all know, are extraordinarily interesting organisms. We are contacting you because of your taxonomic expertise on one or more groups of catfishes.

The primary product of this project will be published descriptions of all species of catfishes that currently are undescribed. Additional products will be:
1. A website devoted to catfish diversity that will include a classification of catfishes, digital images of type-specimens coupled with live or well-preserved specimens, identification keys, distribution maps, a searchable bibliography of literature, and information on the project’s participants.
2. An electronic mail listserver to facilitate communication among catfish taxonomists,
3. New collections of catfishes from locations where undescribed species are likely to be found,
4. The training of students and postdocs in catfish taxonomy and systematics.

In accordance with the objective of the BS&I Program, this project is restricted to species discovery and description. The program requires a high rate of productivity. The ALL CATFISH SPECIES PROJECT will facilitate the independent and original description of many undescribed catfish species already known to experts. It also will result in the discovery and description of unknown species of catfishes through careful review of unstudied catfish specimens already in natural history collections, and through targeted exploration and collecting at locations in South America, Africa and Asia known or expected to harbor diverse catfish faunas. In addition to its own field initiatives, this project will forge mutually productive links with several relevant ongoing or nascent projects of ichthyological exploration of catfish-rich waters.

We plan to develop a method for rapid, peer-reviewed publication of species descriptions at no publication cost to authors or their institutions. All manuscripts accepted for publication will be posted on the web site, where additional images or other material related to the species descriptions can be posted. Some participants also may choose to author catfish pages for the separate web-based Tree of Life; see (http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html).

Funds will be available for participants to travel to museums and/or to conduct fieldwork, and for printing costs related to the publication of species descriptions. The project will also sponsor workshops for participants. This project cannot fund studies that are limited to higher-level catfish phylogeny, molecular diversity and evolution, or ecology. Although investigations of these and other aspects of catfish biology are of interest to all of us, they are beyond the scope of the BS&I program.

We seek to be inclusive of taxonomists who are actively working on catfish species and we expect a large number of participants. Toward that end, we invite your participation, and your questions and comments. If you choose to participate, please let us know by July 1 and indicate the catfish genera and families that you work on. We will contact you again about the level of your participation and funding opportunities.

We will involve catfish taxonomists around the world and will appreciate receiving from you a list of catfish taxonomists (including students) whom you believe should be included (see our preliminary list below). Please send us the names, addresses, and email addresses for additional active catfish taxonomists whom you think should be involved and indicate the genera/families of catfishes under study by them.

For those of you attending the ASIH meeting in Kansas City, we will meet as a group from 6-8pm on Friday, July 5, in the Senators Room on the 5th Floor of the Conference Hotel. Please plan to attend and bring your questions and suggestions for the project.

Thank you for your cooperation and we look forward to your active participation in documenting catfish species of the world. We expect this project to generate a huge amount of scientific information on catfishes and to lead to a greater understanding and appreciation of biodiversity. We also are hopeful that ALL CATFISH SPECIES will serve as a model for other all-species global inventories.

U.S. Participants
Armbruster, J. armbrjw@mail.auburn.edu
Burgess, W. burgwl@aol.com,
Burr, B. burr@zoology.siu.edu
Ferraris, C. cferraris@email.msn.com
Friel, J. jpf19@cornell.edu
Hardman, M. hardman1@students.uiuc.edu
Hendrickson, D. deanhend@mail.utexas.edu
Littmann, M. littman@acnatsci.org
Lundberg, J. lundberg@acnatsci.org
Ng, H.H. heokheen@umich.edu
Nico, L. leo_nico@usgs.gov
Page, L. l-page1@uiuc.edu
Petry, P. fishnwine@mchsi.com
Retzer, M. mretzer@inhs.uiuc.edu
Sabaj, M. sabaj@acnatsci.org
Schaefer, S. schaefer@amnh.org
Schmidt, R. schmidt@simons-rock.edu
Stewart, D. djstewar@mailbox.syr.edu
Vari, R.P. richard.vari@nmnh.si.edu
Walsh, S. steve_walsh@usgs.gov

Potential Non-U.S. Participants
Abreu, T. tatixando@hotmail.com
Akama, A. aakama@ib.usp.br
Allen, G.R. tropical_reef@bigpond.com
Aquino, A. aquino@amnh.org
Arratia, G. gloria.arratia@rz.hu-berlin.de, h0662mv@rz.hu-berlin.de
Ataur Rahman, A.
Azpelicueta, M. azpeli@isis.nlp.edu.ar
Baena, E.G.
Bertoletti, J.J.
Bills, R. R.Bills@ru.ac.za
Bizerril, C.
Bockmann, F.A. fabockmann@ffclrp.usp.br
Britski, H. heraldo@usp.br
Britto, M. mrbritto@ib.usp.br
Buitrago, U. peces@saluki-mail.siu.edu
Cardoso, A.R. alexrc@pucrs.br
Castro, R.M.C. rmcastro@ffclrp.usp.br
Chan, B.P.L.
Coad, B.W. bcoad@mus-nature.ca
Costa, W.J.E.M. wcosta@acd.ufrj.br
de Pinna, M.C.C. pinna@ib.usp.br
De Vos , L.
Fernandez, L. luis1813@yahoo.com
Fumihito, A.
Garavello, J.C. garavelo@power.ufscar.br
Ghazzi, M.S. ghazzi@ib.usp.br
Gosztonyi, A.E. goszto@cenpat.edu.ar
Guazzelli, G.M. guazelli@ib.usp.br
Gustiano, R. rgustiano@africamuseum.be
Higuchi, H.
Isbrucker, I. isbruecker@science.uva.nl
Isern, E.R. erisern@mixmail.com
Kailola, P.J. pkailola@compuserve.com
Keith, P. keith@cimrs1.mnhn.fr
Kobayakawa, M. mkobascb@mbox.nc.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Kottelat, M. mkottelat@planet.ch
Krudpan, C. k_chaiwut@hotmail.com
Langeani, F. langeani@zoo.ibilce.unesp.br
Lasso A., C.A. lassoc@mixmail.com
Lim, K.K.P. dbslimkp@nus.edu.sg
Lima, F.C.T. fctlima@usp.br
Lucinda, P.H.F. lucinda@pucrs.br
Malabarba, L.
Menezes, N.
Miquelarena, A. miquelar@ilpla.edu.ar
Mirza, M.R.
Mo, T.
Montoya-Burgos, J.-I.
Moreira, C.R. cmoreira@ib.usp.br
Fisch-Muller, S. sonia.muller@mhn.ville-ge.ch
Musikasinthorn, P. ffispcm@ku.ac.th
Nascimento, Carlos
Ng, P. dbsngkl@leonis.nus.edu.sg
Oliveira, J.C. jco@icb.ufjf.br
Ortega, H. hortega@musm.edu.pe, hortega@terra.com.pe
Oyakawa, O. oyakawa@usp.br
Paixão, A.C. paixao@yahoo.com.br
Parisi, B. parisi@cimrs1.mnhn.fr
Pereira, E.H.L. edsonhlp@pucrs.br
Pethyiagoda, R. rohan@wht.org
Provenzano, F. fprovenz@strix.ciens.ucv.ve
Rapp Py Daniel, L. rapp@inpa.gov.br
Reis, R.E. reis@pucrs.br
Risch, L.
Roberts, T. tysonnagas@hotmail.com
Rodiles, R.
Royero, R. rroyero@hotmail.com
Salcedo, N.J. normasalcedo@hotmail.com
Shibatta, O.A. shibatta@uel.br
Shunping He
Skelton, P.H. p.skelton@ru.ac.za
Soares-Porto, L.M. lmsporto@bol.com.br
Sousa, L.M. leandro@inpa.gov.br
Taphorn, D. taphorn@cantv.net
Teugels, G. teugels@africamuseum.be
Vidthayanon, C. chavaliv@fisheries.go.th
Vieira, F.
Weber, C. claude.weber@mhn.ville-ge.ch
Wirjoatmodjo, S.
Wosiacki, W.B. wolmar@ib.usp.br
Zuanon, J.

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