ANNOTATED LIST OF THE SPECIES 147 
of urinotropism from parasitism. Some of them could be as readily interpreted 
one way as the other. The case for urinotropism is very weak indeed, and few 
cases if any cannot be ascribed to parasitism. However, it is an incipient or 
facultative degree of parasitism at that, and not at all an obligate one. It lacks 
the ear-marks of true, obligate parasitism, for (a) there is no evidence that they 
cannot turn to predatism, or do not rely upon it nearly altogether; (b) there is no 
especial readaptation of the body for the inactivity of parasitism, unless, as in the 
case of Hemicetopsis, a very great capacity for soft, liquid food; and (c) there are 
no known modifications of life history for such a mode of life. 
Haseman, 1911b, page 315, not quoted in the table above, agrees that some 
species of candirvi are said to live in the branchial cavities of the larger siluroids. 
“In fact they attach themselves to any kind of fish or animal, including man. 
By means of suction for which their mouths are adapted, they fasten themselves 
to their victim, and then painlessly cut the skin, and gorge themselves upon its 
blood. The fishes brought into the market at Manaos often show many wounds 
inflicted by the Candirtis. Below the first fall in the Madeira river it is difficult 
to take a catfish which has not been bitten several times by the Candiris.”’ This 
may be considered as much in the nature of predatism as parasitism. 
Numerous popular authors give some brief space to the candiru. Prodgers, 
Bolivia, page 115, calls them the kandiro, ‘‘a slimy leech, three to four inches 
long, which get up into the rectum,”’ where they erect the dorsal fin and have to 
be cut out. In his Peru the same writer, page 210, calling them candero, 14 to 3 
inches long, ‘‘and a shark in mineature, with similar fins and teeth... when the 
fins fold down it looks like a worm... its favorite point of attack is the funda- 
ment.” 
Orton found the name applied also to three species of Serrasalmo, by reason 
of the same dread inspired in bathers. ‘‘The natives accuse Vandellia of entering 
the nether openings of bathers’? but he did not meet with any confirmatory cases. 
Guenther, 1931, alludes to it as a little, thread-like Silure...an unpleasant ac- 
quaintance ... forces its way into the urethra of bathers and owing to the spines 
on the gill-covers it cannot be extracted.”’ 
Marcoy, 1875, II, 184-188, provides us with a drawing which has more re- 
semblance to Hemicetopsis than to other suspects, as you might also suppose from 
the stated length of 5-6 inches... “it wages relentless war on the calves of the 
natives who come within its reach; darts impetuously at the fleshy mass, and rends 
a portion away before the owner of the calf has time to realize his loss.”’ Then 
he goes on to say that “the smaller of the species are 2-3 lines long and dangerous 
in quite another respect ... introduce themselves into the secret parts of bathers, 
where their extended fins retain them captive... whispered warnings to avoid 
passing urine into the water ...one remedy alone the Ucayali doctors (sic) ...a 
tisane made with genipa or hwitoch apple... hot... dissolves (they pretend) the 
animal which obstructs.” I (W.R.A.) found numerous natives using a fruit with 
the same name, rubbing it into the skin of hands, face, and feet, where it gave an 
intense, purplish black stain, said to be repellent to mosquitoes and sand-flies. 
