Wallagonia is a recently established genus of

Silurid Siluridae is the nominate family of catfishes in the order Siluriformes. About 105 living species of silurids are placed in 12 or 14 genera. Although silurids occur across much of Europe and Asia, they are most diverse in Southeast Asia, beyond ...

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, ...

es, containing 3 distinct species, all of whom are native to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

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Wallagonia leerii ''Wallagonia leerii'', also known as the Great Tapah, helicopter catfish, and formerly the striped wallago catfish is a species of catfish native to Southeast Asia. Its habitat ranges from the river drainages of Thailand through the Malayan penin ...

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Wallagonia maculatus ''Wallagonia maculatus'' is a species of catfish in the family Siluridae (the sheatfishes) endemic to Malaysia, where it is known only from Sabah in northern Borneo. This species grows up to a length of SL. Until osteological research validate ...

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Wallagonia micropogon ''Wallagonia micropogon'' is a species of catfish in the genus ''Wallagonia''. This species was recently discovered and is found in the Mekong River drainage area between southern Vietnam and northern Laos as well as Chao Phraya River in Thailan ...

'' For the longest time, these species were included in the genus

Wallago ''Wallago'' is a genus of catfishes order Siluriformes of the family Siluridae, or sheatfish. They are found in rivers throughout southern and southeastern Asia. The only extant species of this genus is ''Wallago attu''. Taxonomy The monophyly o ...

, only in 2014 the separate genus Wallagonia was finally established based on osteological features that clearly separate the two.Roberts, T.R. (2014): ''Wallago Bleeker, 1851 and Wallagonia Myers, 1938 (Ostariophysi, Siluridae), Distinct Genera of Tropical Asian Catfishes, with Description of †Wallago maemohensis from the Miocene of Thailand.'' Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 55 (1): 35-47. doi:10.3374/014.055.0103 While ''W. leerii'' is spread widely throughout Southeast Asia, ''W. micropogon'' and ''W. maculatus'' have a highly restricted habitat, with ''W. micropogon'' only occurring in the Mekong river basin and ''W. maculatus'' only occurring in the

Kinabatangan river The Kinabatangan River ( ms, Sungai Kinabatangan) is a river in Sandakan Division, in northeastern Sabah, Malaysia. It is the second longest river in Malaysia, with a length of from its headwaters in the mountains of southwest Sabah, to its ou ...

basin on the island of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

. As the sole difference from ''W. leerii'' seems to be a slightly different coloration, biologists are doubtful that they are distinct species at all, instead probably being local subspecies of ''W. leerii''. However, until further research has been performed, they are regarded as valid species.

References

Siluridae Fish of Asia Freshwater fish genera Catfish genera Taxa named by George S. Myers {{catfish-stub