NEMACHILUS BARBATULUS. 249 



Nemachilus barbatnlus (LINN^US). The Loach. 



D. 10, A. 7, V. 7. 



The Loach is supposed to have acquired its name from the French verb 

 locker, to fidget. It is known in France as la Locke franche, a name which 

 varies in the provinces. About Paris its habits of dabbling 1 in the mud have 

 gained it the name of Barbotte. In Germany it is Schmerle, or Grundel, or 

 Bartgrwndel. In Italy it is Cobile barbatello (Fig. 141). 



As compared with Misgurnusfossilis, the Loach has a less elongated body, 

 relatively thicker, with a longer and broader head ; an evenly truncate caudal 

 fin, with rounded corners. The length is seven to eight times the height, and 



Fig. 141. NEMACHILUS BARBATVLVS ( 



the body is five or five and a half times the length of the head. The height 

 of the body only slightly exceeds its thickness, but the head, on the other 

 hand, may be a little wider than high- The mouth is rather larger than 

 in Misgurnns fossilis, but, in position and shape, it is similar. The upper 

 jaw projects, and of the six barbels the four middle ones are more distant 

 from the angles of the mouth, and, therefore, nearer together; the front 

 pair is smallest. The under lip carries no barbels; it is notched in the 

 middle, and, according to Giinther, each side is again divided by a notch. The 

 cleft between the lips is transverse. The barbels at the angle of the mouth 

 are about one-third of the length of the head, and reach back nearly, if not 

 quite, to the pre-operculum. 



The eye is midway between the end of the snout and the gill-aperture, and 

 placed high, near to the frontal profile. Its diameter is one-sixth or one- 

 seventh of the length of head, and the breadth of the frontal interspace is 

 between one and a third and twice the diameter of the eye. The skin does 

 not go over the eye as in Misgurnus fossilis, but forms a flat movable band 



