The papillate sea catfish (Cathorops kailolae), also known as the Kailola's sea catfish, is a species of sea catfish in the family Ariidae. It was described by Alexandre Pires Marceniuk and Ricardo Betancur-RodrÃÂguez in 2008. It is a tropical fresh and saltwater catfish which occurs in Central America. It reaches a standard length of .
The species epithet "kailolae" refers to ichthyologist Patricia J. Kailola, and is cited as being given in honour of her contributions to the systematics for the family Ariidae.