MALA COPTERVail ECIIENEIDJE. 



SUBBRACHIALES. 



TAB. XL 



ECHENEIS VITTATA, Nob. 



Pogador i. e. Pegador, ou Peixe Piolho. 



Striped Remora. 



Char, Fam. ac Gen. 



Corpus elongatum, nudiiisculum s. minutissime squammulosum. Caput supra disco transverse la- 

 minifero. Maxillae, vomer, et palatini, scobinati. 



Ohs. — Pisces mensurse mediocris, vix edules, pelagici, parasitici, capitis clypeo corporibus alienis 

 affixi, vagabundi, suljtropici, subunicolores, nigrescentes. Caput depressum : os magnimi plagiopla- 

 teum, rictu horizontali, maxilla inferiore longiore. Pinna dorsalis unica, subpostica, anali opposita ; 

 utraque antice alta : ventrales subpectorales. Caeca baud permulta. Vesica aeris nulla. Membrana 

 branchiostega (5 — 9-radiaia. 



Genus adhuc unicum ; ideoque character idem ac familise. Sectiones generis duae : Cauda nempe 

 1) truncata ; 2) lunata. Species plurimaelatentes, vix adhuc notse. 



Char. Spec. 



E. vinoso-nigrescens, pallido variegata et bivittata, fascia intermedia laterali nigra : pinnse dorsalis 



analisque caudalisquc apicibus extremis albis ; pectoralibus nigris, ovatis, acutiusculis, integris: cor- 



poro postice attenuato, gracillimo : oculis majusculis : lingua scabra : clypei laminis xxiii. ; cauda 



trancata. 



1 + VIII. 

 D. 39 ; A. .39 ; P. 22 ; V. 1 + 5 ; C. ^ , yjj 



E. vittafa, Suppl. Mad. Fish, in Proceed. Zool. Soc. 1839. p. 89. 



Lomjit. pedalis rr 14 — 15 X alt. 



Tempus, aestatc s. Augusio. 



Locus, in pelago, Squall assecla : rariss. 



The identity of any species of the modern genus Echene'is, with the fa- 

 mous ''Y.XiVTiig, or Remora, of the ancients, has been far too hastily as- 

 sumed. The later Greek and Latin naturalists have, indeed, preserved 

 accounts, which they relate were current in their days, of certain marvellous 

 etiects produced in stopping or retarding vessels, by the adhesion to them 

 of a fish, which, in allusion to these popular stories, they have called 

 'E^gvjj'/f, or Remora, the Ship-stayer. Two different fishes are, however, 

 plainly mixed up in these histories. Aristotle's, which is, he says, a small 

 rock-fish, not used for food, but philtres, and with feet-like fins,* seems to 



* Arist. Hist. B. /. 3. 

 vol,. I. 



