146 FISHES OF WESTERN SOUTH AMERICA 
parasitism in general. It would seem to account for the lack of specific points of 
attack by the laws of chance. 
10. The apparently genuine cases supporting the tradition would inevitably 
receive more attention than the random attacks of the fish upon other parts of the 
body. This may be partly due to the fact that the indigenous tribes of the region 
have a superstitious attitude, perhaps reverence, toward the organs of reproduction. 
Nor is the psyche of the white population without its rich erotic vein and consequent 
emphasis upon phallic matters. 
If a study of the porpoises or manatees of the Amazon should yield abundant 
piscine parasites on or about the genitaha, a better interpretation of what Gudger 
ealls ‘‘the only vertebrate parasite of man’ could be made. 
In the foregoing table I have attempted to bring into a bird’s eye view the 
evidence pertaining to the candiru. Most of the cases given are taken direct 
from Gudger, or from sources cited by him. 
A summarization of the table will warrant the following: 
1. That the exact identity of the culprit is not clear, nor the limits of its 
depredations, whether it is the original Cetopsis candiru of Spix, or whether a num- 
ber of species are involved, even whether some unknown species exists which is the 
guilty one. No specimen known to have attacked man has been preserved in a 
museum, so far as is known. Orton reported, and others have repeated, that two 
species exist. The Peruvians told me that there are two, a larger attacking females 
only. This may be the same form that Jobert calls candiru de cavallo, or “horse 
eandirt.”’ 
2. The credibility of some of the witnesses may be impugned, when accepting 
such accounts as that of the fish ascending a jet of urine from the surface of the 
stream, or the dorsal fin being used as a holdfast, and the fish being a myxino 
(hagfish or lamprey). 
3. A schooling habit is sometimes described, not easily reconciled with other 
habits described. 
4. It cannot be questioned that members of this family sometimes attack other 
fishes or the raw flesh of fishes and other animals. They have been attracted and 
trapped by their taste for flesh. It would be an easy step, considering their intru- 
sive habits, for them to attach themselves to the mouths or gills of larger catfishes, 
as witnesses report, or even to invade other parts of the host’s body, or to be 
attracted to any opening which they find. 
5. Persons have been attacked while bathing, and have received minor wounds 
not very clearly chargeable to these fishes. 
6. Some of the cases of operations are doubtfully due to the candiru, others are 
rather directly reported and convincing, none quite first hand. 
7. It will be noted that among the stories coming through popular sources, 
and also most of the older accounts, that the candiri is given to attacking males, 
while the more recent and more direct reports show that females risking themselves 
in the water are usually the objects of attack. 
8. There is little clear-cut evidence by which we can definitely sort out cases 
