416 conteibutions to north american ichthyology — iv. 



Family LXX.— ECHENEIDID^. 

 {The Eemoras.) 



Body fusiform, elongate, covered with minute, cycloid scales. Mouth 

 wide, with villiform teeth on jaws, vomer, palatines, and usually on 

 tongue. Premaxillaries not protractile. Lower jaw projecting beyond 

 ui)per. Spinous dorsal modified into a sucking-disk, which is jjlaced on 

 the top of the head and neck, and is composed of a double series of 

 transverse, movable, cartilaginous plates, serrated on their posterior or 

 free edges. By means of this disk these fishes attach themselves to 

 other fishes or to floating objects, and are carried for great distances in 

 the sea. Opercles unarmed. Pectoral fins i>laced high; ventral fins 

 present, thoracic, and close together — I, 5; dorsal and anal fins long, 

 without spines, opposite each other; caudal fin einarginate or rounded. 

 Branchiostegals 7. Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth; gill-rakers short; 

 gill-membranes not united, free from the isthmus. Pseudobranchite ob- 

 solete. Several pyloric appendages. No air-bladder. No finlets. No 

 caudal keel. YertebraB more than 10 + 14. Genera 2; species about 

 10, found in all seas, all having a very wide range. 



{Scomhridcp. part : genua Eclieneia Giiuther, ii, 376-385.) 



a. Rays of pectorals normal Echeneis, 206. 



aa. Rays of pectoral fins stiff, broad, osseous , Rhombocuirus, 207. 



206.— ECHEi\EIS Liuuseus. 



(Artedi; Linn. Syst. Nat.: type Echeneis naucrates L.) 



Pectoral rays soft and flexible. Characters otherwise included above. 

 [t/jvT^cqy an ancient name, from e^"*} to hold back; vau?, a ship.) 



a. Body very slender ; vertebrae 14 -f 16. (Echeneis.) 



057. E. naucrates L. — Pegador. 



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 ven- 

 trals black, sometimes bordered with pale; dorsal and anal broadly 

 edged with white anteriorly. Body elongate, subterete, slender. Disk 

 long. Dorsal and anal fins longer than the disk; inner rays of ventral 

 fins nirrowly adnate to the abdomen; caudal becoming emarginate with 

 age. Yertebrte 14 + lG. Yertical fins low; pectorals 2- length of head, 

 rather long and acute. Lower jaw projecting, with the tip flexible. 



