195 



NETWOEK SUCKER. 



Liparia reticulatus, Risso? 



Lepadogaster hlmaculatus, Gunther; Cat. Br. M., vol. iii, p. 514, 



The naturalist Risso describes under the name here given a 

 kind of sucking fish which he supj^osed new to science, and 

 which he had discovered in the Mediterranean. The specific 

 character which he assigned to it is, the colour a dusky yellow, 

 with a network of grey and black; the dorsal and anal fins 

 opposite each other and not united to the tail. In his description 

 he also remarks that the muzzle is short and round, and the 

 jaws of equal length; but he further adds, with some apparent 

 contradiction, that the dorsal fin, which is furnished with six 

 rays, is placed immediately over the tail, and the anal with 

 only four rays is opposite to it, but both of them are at some 

 distance from the tail. But setting aside these last-named 

 particulars, if the fish thus referred to be indeed a distinct species, 

 and not a variety of Montagu's Sucker, as Dr. Gunther sup- 

 posed it to be, we may then venture to claim some Cornish 

 examples as the same with Risso's fish, and as such one that 

 has not hitherto been recognised as belonging to the British 

 Catalogue. Three species have been examined, and all of 

 them from a very limited extent of coast, at the depth of only 

 a few fathoms; but of their particular habits nothing further 

 has been ascertained. 



The length was very nearly three inches. In comparison with 

 an example of Montagu's Sucker the front appeared wider, head 

 more depressed, dorsal and anal fins shorter, and approaching 

 less nearly to the tail; sucking organ with the same number of 

 tubercles. The general colour was a dusky yellow, lighter on 

 the belly; but the whole surface of the skin and fins was covered 

 with a network of lines, of which the meshes in different parts 

 only varied in being more or less small. They were so especially 

 in front, from the eyes to the mouth. When an example had 

 been preserved for no long time in diluted spirit of wine, this 

 beautiful network disajjpeared. 



