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



E. pallida, Schleg.* likewise as synonymous with the present 

 species. I have found sixteen laminae in Chinese specimens, 

 Schlegel sixteen or seventeen. The latter number appears to 

 indicate the highest limit, as fourteen does the lowest, within 

 which the laminse vary in this species ; they occur only occa- 

 sionally, and specimens with fifteen and sixteen laminse are the 

 most frequent. 



Finally, a fifth name has been given to this species by Dr. 

 Bleeker, E. Nieuhofii-f. He was well aware of its close affinity 

 to the fish described by Lowe and Schlegel ; but he considers the 

 diagnosis given by the former as too brief to be taken into con- 

 sideration, and finds a difference from the fish of the latter in the 

 structure of the skin. The figures given by Nieuhof and Valen- 

 tyn, which we have mentioned above, are referred to this species 

 by Dr. Bleeker ; but if he admits those into the synonymy, the 

 diagnosis of Mr. Lowe, with the name proposed by him, would 

 have merited it as well. The alleged difference in the structure 

 of the skin is merely produced by the mode of preservation. 

 Schlegel describes as a peculiarity in the Japanese fish, that its 

 skin has a porous appearance, and that the scales are at the 

 bottom of small cavities. The skin of Bleeker' s fish is smooth, 

 although covered with minute scales. I have seen fishes in both 

 states : those with smooth skin are the best preserved, their skin 

 still retaining a part of the mucus. But in specimens preserved 

 for a longer period in somewhat weak spirit, the skin loses all 

 the mucus, and the cavities in which the scales are imbedded 

 make their appearance in the fishes from the Atlantic as well as 

 from the East Indies. 



7. Echeneis albescens. 



This species was made known by Schlegel (Faun. Japon.Poiss. 

 p. 272, pi. 120. fig. 3), and is easily recognized by the small 

 number of laminse in the disk (thirteen) . I have found it since 

 in a collection of Chinese fishes, and another form closely allied 

 to it. 



8. Echeneis Holbrookii. 



I cannot claim the discovery of this species, as it has appa- 

 rently been known to several of the North American writers 

 (although they have confounded it with E. naucrates), and it is 

 evident that it has been described by Holbrook. The latter, 

 however, does not point out those characters by which it may 

 be distinguished at once from the other species mentioned, and 

 calls it E. lineata, which name had been applied long before to 

 a different species. 



* Faun. Japon. Poiss. p. 271, pi. 120. figs. 2, 3. 



f Bleek., Natuurk. Tydschr. Nederl. Ind. 1853, i, p. 2/9. 



