416 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY - IV. 



FAMILY LXX. ECHENEIDID^. 



(The Rcmoras.) 



Body fusiform, elongate, covered with minute, cycloid scales. Mouth 

 wide, with villiform teeth on jaws, vomer, palatines, and usually on 

 tongue. Preaiaxillaries not protractile. Lower jaw projecting beyond 

 upper. Spinous dorsal modified into a sucking-disk, which is placed on 

 the top of tbe head and neck, and is composed of a double series of 

 transverse, movable, cartilaginous plates, serrated on their posterior or 

 free edges. By means of this disk these fishes attach themselves to 

 other fishes or to floating objects, and are carried for great distances in. 

 the sea. Opercles unarmed. Pectoral fins placed high; ventral fins 

 present, thoracic, and close together I, 5; dorsal and anal fins long, 

 without spines, opposite each other; caudal fin eraarginate or rounded. 

 Branehiostegals 7. Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth; gill-rakers short; 

 gill-membranes not united, free from the isthmus. Pseudobranchire ob- 

 solete. Several pyloric appendages. No air-bladder. No fiulets. No 

 caudal keel. Vertebrae more than 10 + 14. Genera 2; species about 

 10, found in all seas, all having a very wide range. 



(Sconibriiln- part : nmus fa-henna (iiintlicr, ii, ^ 



a. Rays of pectorals normal ........................................ KCIIKNF.IS, 20C. 



aa. Rays of pectoral fins stiff, broad, osseous .................. Riiosmociiiurs. x;()7. 



2O6. EOBIEVEBS Linmi-us. 



(Artedi; Linn. Syst. Nat.: type Echendx mini-rates L.) 



Pectoial rays soft and flexible. Characters otherwise included above. 

 (^>//?, an ancient name, from i'-/w, to hold back; vaoc, a ship.) 



a. I'.oily v-ry slender; vertebrae 14-fl6. (Echeneis.) 



C57. E. itaucrntcs L. Pcgailor. 



I'.KIU nish; belly dark like the back, as usual in this family; sides 

 with a broad stripe of darker edged \\ilh whitish, extending through 

 eyr in snout ; caudal Mack, its outer angles whit ish ; pectorals and veu- 

 trals black, sometimes bordered wilh pale; <lorsal and anal broadly 

 ed.ueil \\illi \\hite antenoi'ly. I iody -longate, siibt'rete, slender. Disk 

 long. Dorsal and anal tins longer than the disk; inner rays of ventral 

 fins n.:rro\\ ly adnate to the abdomen ; caudal becoming emarginate with 

 age. Vertebra- 14 + 10. Vertical lins lo\v; pectorals : < length of head, 

 rather J->ng and acute. Lower jaw projecting, with the tip flexible. 



