Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America, 2269 



a. Disk of 22 to 26 laminae (rarely 21 or 28), its length less than body. 



NAUCRATES, 260,'!. 



aa. Disk of 20 or 21 lamina% its length more than \ body. NAUCRATEOIDES, 2604. 



2603. ECHENEIS NAUCRATES, Linnrcus. 

 (SHARK-SUCKER; PEGA; PEOADOU; SUCKING-FISH.) 



Head 5| ; deptli 11 to 12. D. XXII to XXVIII (rarely XXI)-32 to 41 ; A. 

 31 to 38. Breadth between pectorals 11 ; disk 4 to 5 in body ; eye 5 in 

 head ; snout 2 ; maxillary 3 ; from angle of month to tip of lower jaw 2| ; 

 pectoral lg j ventrals 1|; middle caudal rays If; highest anal ray 2; 

 highest dorsal ray 2^; width of disk 2\ in its length; base of dorsal 2, 

 anal 2, in body. Body elongate, snbterete, slender. Lower jaw strongly 

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

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

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

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

 very slightly past tips of ventrals; origin of ventral spine under middle 

 of pectoral base ; inner rays of ventral fins narrowly adnate to the abdo- 

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

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

 n ate or lunate with ago. 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 sharks, groupers, or any other large fish, 

 without regard to species. Few large sharks at Key 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 

 Eemora remora has been recorded from sharks is no longer true. Several 

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

 26 laminae, the disk 4 to 5 in body, and naucrateoides (albicauda = hol- 

 brooki = lineatus), in which the disk is longer, 3f to 4 in body, but com- 

 posed of fewer, 20 or 21, lamime. 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 difference 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; vavc,, ship; nparsa), to govern, guide.) 



Echeneis neucrates (misprint for naucrates), LINNAEUS, Syst. Nat., Ed. x, 261, 1758, "in 



Pelago Indico;" GUNTHER, Cat., n, 384, I860; JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 416, 1883. 

 Echeneis albicauda, MITCHILL, Amer. Monthly Mag., n, 1817, 244, New York. 

 Echeneit lunata, BANCROFT, Proc. Comm. Zool. Soc., 1, 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. 



