The brown madtom (''Noturus phaeus'') is a species of

madtom Madtoms are freshwater catfishes (order Siluriformes) of the genus ''Noturus'' of the family Ictaluridae. It is the most species-rich family of catfish in North America, native to the central and eastern United States, and adjacent parts of Canad ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive ...

native to the southern United States.

Distribution

The distribution of the brown madtom includes disjunct tributaries of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

from the

Obion River The Obion River system is the primary surface water drainage system of northwestern Tennessee, United States. Description The Obion has four major forks, the North Fork, Middle Fork, South Fork and Rutherford Fork (which is named after Henr ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

and

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

south to southwestern

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

and central and northern

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

extending to extreme southern

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

. It occupies creeks and small rivers with sand-gravel riffles and runs with debris, rocks, and undercut banks.

References

Noturus

Madtom Madtoms are freshwater catfishes (order Siluriformes) of the genus ''Noturus'' of the family Ictaluridae. It is the most species-rich family of catfish in North America, native to the central and eastern United States, and adjacent parts of Canad ...

Endemic fauna of the United States Freshwater fish of the Southeastern United States Fish described in 1969 {{catfish-stub