Jorda7i ayid Evcrmann . — Fishes of North /Imerica. 2269 



a. Disk of 22 to 26 laTiiiniTP (rarely 21 or 28), its length less tlmn J l)o<ly. 



NAUCRATES, 2603. 



CM. Disk of 20 or 21 lamina', its length more than J body. NAUfUATEOiDES, 2604. 



2003. KCHKXEISi XAU( R.VTES, Linnieus. 



(Shark-sucker ; Pega; Peoador; Sucking-fish.) 



Head 5i; depth 11 to 12. D. XXII to XXYIII (rarely XXI)-32 to 41 ; A. 

 31 to 38. Breadth hetweeu pectorals Ih ; disk 4 to 5 in hody ; eye 5 in 

 head; snont2:}; niaxillaiy 3; from angle of mouth to tip of loAver jaw 2|; 

 pectoral 1*; ventrals 1^; middle caudal rays 1?; highest anal ray 2; 

 highest dorsal ray 2A; width of disk 21 in its length; hase of dorsal 2i, 

 anal 21, in hody. Bodj' elongate, snl>terete, slender. Lower jaw strongly 

 projecting, the tip Hexihle; maxillary reaching nostril; teeth uniform 

 in the adult, the young with series of small slender teeth iu advance of 

 the others; gill rakers short and slender, ahout equal to pupil; vertical 

 fins low. Anal rays higher than dorsal anteriorly; pectorals reaching 

 very slightly i^ast tips of ventrals; origin of ventral spine under middle 

 of pectoral hase; inner rays of ventral lius narrowly adnate to the abdo- 

 men; dorsal and anal commencing and ending opijosite each other; caudal 

 with the midtlle rays produced in the young, the fin becoming emargi- 

 n ate or lunate with age. Color brownish; belly dark, like the back, as 

 usual in this family; sides with a broad stripe of darker edged with 

 whitish extending through eye to snout; caudal black, its outer angles 

 whitish; pectorals and ventrals black, sometimes bordered with pale; 

 dorsal and anal broadly edged with white anteriorly; adult nearly uni- 

 form dark brown, not paler below. Warm seas, universally distributed; 

 common north to Cape Cod and occasionally to San Francisco, attaching 

 itself to turtles and to large fishes. This species is very common in the 

 tropics, being found attached to shai-ks, groupers, or any other large fish, 

 without regard to species. Few large sharks at Kej- West are without them. 

 They are often caught with hook and line from the wharf, where they fre- 

 quently forsake their host to take the bait. Liitken's remark that only 

 Bemora reviora has been recorded from sharks is no longer true. Several 

 writers have recognized 2 species of Echerieis proper — naucrates, with 22 to 

 26 lamina^, the disk 4 to 5 in body, and nancrateoides (^ alMcaiida ^ Iwl- 

 hrooki^ lineatus), iu which the disk is longer, 3f to 4 in body, but com- 

 posed of fewer, 20 or 21, lamina*. The latter form is rather common on 

 our coast, the specimens from Key West above mentioned having 21. We 

 doubt the existence of any permanent diiference between the two, but 

 provisionally retain Echeneis naucrateoides as a species distinct from Eche- 

 neis naucrates until more complete comparison can be made, {naucrates, a 

 pilot; T'avc,, ship; xparEOD, to govern, guide.) 



Eclieneis neucrates (misprint for naucrates), Linn.eus, Syst. Nat., Ed. x, 261, 1758, "in 



Pelago Indico;" Gunther, Cat., ii, 381, I860; Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis, -116, 1883. 

 Echeneis albicauda, Mitchill, Amer. Monthly Mag., ll, 1817, 244, New York. 

 Echeneit lunata, Bancroft, Proc. Comm. Zool. Soc, i, 1830, 134, Kingston, Jamaica. 

 "^Echeneis vittata, Lowe, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1839, 89, Madeira. 

 Echeneis fasciata, Gronow, Ed. Gray, 92, 1854, Mediterranean Sea. 

 Leptecheneis naucrates, Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1864, 60. 



