Prietella

Prietella is a small genus of North American freshwater catfishes found in Mexico and Texas, and restricted to underground waters.

==Taxonomy== Prietella has been confirmed to be monophyletic and to be the sister group of the Noturus. The karyotype of P. phreatophila is indistinguishable from one of the genus Noturus; however, its diploid number of 50 chromosomes differs from the proposed ancestral Noturus karyotype of 54–56 chromosomes. However, this relationship has not been supported by preliminary mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Despite similarity to other cave-dwelling species of Ictaluridae, they are not closely related.