Dr. A. Giinther on the History of Echeneis. 395 



buckler, namely a vacuum effected by the laminae, which can 

 be erected either by the muscles during life, or artificially, after 

 death, by impressing the spines into any body, the minute 

 spines merely affording an additional help. " The use it makes 

 of its sucker is much less than may be supposed : it often 

 merely swims around the body it attends, and only fixes upon it 

 occasionally, arid for a very short time. The adhesion of the 

 buckler is chiefly effected by the smooth membrane that margins 

 it. After the death of the fish, and even after the head has been 

 severed from the body, the moist membranous border of this 

 organ adheres to a plane surface with undiminished power. 

 One muscle can be raised and depressed by the fish, indepen- 

 dent of the others, or all can be moved simultaneously and 

 rapidly. Their uses are, to fix the sucker more firmly, to offer 

 resistance in one determinate direction, and probably to liberate 

 the sucker from its attachment by relieving the vacuum." Ben- 

 nett saw " some perfectly white Remora." 



2. Echeneis naucrates. 



Although less frequent round the European coasts than E. 

 remora, this species was described and figured at an earlier period 

 and more correctly. We find it in the works of Aldrovandi *, 

 Jonstonf, Marcgravet, Willughby, Ray||, Ruysch^f, Seba**. 

 Consequently its occurrence in the Mediterranean and in the 

 Atlantic was known almost from the first. Whilst Dutertre ft, 

 Brown J J, and Parra , mention its frequent occurrence in the 

 Caribbean Sea, its presence in the Indian Ocean is indicated by 

 Leguat || ||, and in the Mediterranean by Forskal ^ and Hassel- 

 quist ***. The latter gives a most accurate description of it. 



After being introduced into the system as Echeneis naucrates by 

 Linnaeus (Syst. i. p. 446), it is found in the works of Gronow ttt* 

 Klein J J J, Bloch, and Lacepede || || ||, who, following Linnaeus, 



* iii. cap. 22. p. 335. 



t Thaumatogr. lib. i. tit. 1. cap. 2. art. 4, tab. 4. f. 3, tab. 39. f. 8. 



I Marcgr. Iter, p. 180. Will. p. 119, tab. G. 8. f. 2. 



|| Ray, p. 71. IF Theatr. Univ. p. 7, tab. 4. f. 3, tab. 39. f. 8. 



** iii. p. 103, tab. 33. f. 2. 



ft Hist. Gener. des Antilles, ii. pp. 209, 222 (fig.). 



H Hist. Jamaica, p. 443. Pegador, Parra, p. 94, pi. 36. f. 2. 



|| || Voyage, p. 122 (fig. bad). ^ Forskal, p. xiv (Echeneis naucrates}. 



*** Iter Palest, p. 324, or, in the German edition, p. 371 (Echeneis 

 naucrates}. 



ttt Echeneis, sp. Gronov. Zoophyl. p. 75. no. 252, and Mus. Ichthyol. 

 i. p. 13. no. 34, and Syst. ed. Gray, p. 92 (Echeneis fusca). 



HI Miss. Pise. iv. p. 51. n. 2 (Echeneis Willughbeii). 



Bloch, Ausland. Fische, ii. p. 131, tab. 171 (coloration incorrect), 

 and Bl. Schn. p. 239. 



|| || || Lacep, iii. pp. 146, 162, pi. 9. f. 2. 



