FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



485 



KEY TO GULF OF MAINE REMORAS 



1. Pectoral fins pointed; ventral fins attached to the belly for less than one-third of their length.. Shark sucker, p. 485 

 Pectoral fins rounded; ventral fins attached to the belly for more than half of their length 2 



2. Dorsal fin of 29 rays or more; at most 17 plates in the sucker Swordfish sucker, p. 486 



Dorsal fin of only about 23 rays; about 18 plates in the sucker Remora, p. 487 



Shark sucker Echeneis naucrates Linnaeus 1758 margins are close below the overlapping edge of 



the sucking plate. 



Pilot sucker; White-tailed sucker n~i~~ tu i j *• ± ■ i * j i 



Color. — ine general ground tint is slaty or dark 



brownish gray, with the belly nearly as dark as the 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900 p,x 2269-2270 as back Each gide ig marked b ft brQad darker 



Echeneis naucrates Linnaeus 1758 and E. naucrateoides, , . . . , , . . , 



Zuiew 1789 brown or sooty stripe with white edges, that runs 



from the angle of the jaw to the base of the caudal 



Description. — The most distinctive characters fin but is interrupted by the eye and by the pectoral 



of the shark sucker are mentioned above. It is a fin. The caudal fin is velvety black with white 



very slim fish, 11 or 12 times as long as it is deep, corners, a character noticeable enough to give rise 



nearly round in cross section, and tapering to a to a vernacular name. The dorsal and anal fins 



very slender caudal peduncle. The sucking plate, are dark slate color or black, more or less margined 



reaching from close behind the tip of the snout with white. The pectorals and ventrals are 



back over the nape of the neck even with the black, either plain or more or less pale edged, 



middle of the pectoral fin, is about as broad as the Size.— Reaches about 38 inches, 



head, flat, oval, and with 20 or more very con- Gmeml ^^.-Cosmopolitan in warm seas, 



spicuous transverse plates. The soft dorsal fin n(Jrth as & tQ Haljf Noya gcoti „ on ^ 



(32 to 41 rays) and the anal fin (31 to 38 rays) both Atkntic Coagt of North America 



ongmate about the mid length of the body, and , , . 



they both extend nearly to the base of the caudal Occurrence in the Gulj of Mame.So far as we 



fin. Both of them taper, too, from front to rear, can lea ™ no sha rk e ^f e of this s P ecies has be f n 



but the anal is more concave in form than the reported from the Gulf for many years; m fact the 



, i mi j i C ■ r i ii • u only positive records of it there are for one taken 



dorsal. The caudal fin is slightly concave in old - , , ,. , . . ™ ^. 



c i i . • -. ,i ,i from the bottom of a fishing boat m Boston Bay 



fish but m young ones its central rays are the . . «, , , , , 



longest. The ventral fins are pointed like the ^e time prior to 1839; » for a second reported by 

 pectorals below which they stand, and their inner Wheatland from Salem Harbor (^identified by 

 rays are attached to the skin of the abdomen for .» Leim Proc. Nova scotian inst. sei., vol. 17, pt. 4, 1930, P . xuv. 



Only a short distance. The broad-based pectoral * Dumbed and illustrated by Storer (Fishes of Mass., 1867, p. 210, pi. 32. 



fins are set so high up on the sides that their upper » j our . Essex Co.. Nat. Hist, soc., vol. 1, No. 3, 1852, P . 125. 



WlMffi 



IWMfil-iM/ 



Figure 251. — Shark sucker (Echeneis naucrates), 11-inch 

 specimen, Tortugas, Florida. Below, top view of head 

 of a specimen about 18 inches long from Boca Grande 

 Pass, Florida. Drawings by H. L. Todd. 



