494 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
maxillary bones attenuated backward, flattened, and appressed to the dorsal surface of the intermax - 
illaries; hypercoracoid (or scapula) perforated nearly in the center, and with 4 short actinosts 
(earpals).” (Gill.) 
This remarkable group consists of a single family, Echeneididtr. 
Family XCY. ECHENEIDIIMl- The Remoras. 
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 upper; spinous dorsal modified into a sucking disk which is placed on the top of the head and 
neck, and 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. Opereles unarmed. Pectoral fins placed 
high; ventral fins present, thoracic and close together, i, 5; dorsal and d tins long, without spines, 
opposite each other; caudal fin emarginate or rounded; branchiostegals 7; gills 4, a slit behind the 
fourth; gillrakers short; gill-membranes not united, free from the isthmus; pseudobranchise obsolete; 
several pyloric appendages; no air-bladder, no finlets; no caudal keel; vertebras more than 10+14. 
Genera 4; species about 10, found in all seas, all having a very wide range. 
Genus 244. ECHENEIS (Artedi) Linnaeus. Remoras. 
Body rather robust, the vertebra? 12+15=27; disk shortish, of 13 to 18 laminae; pectoral rounded, 
its rays soft and flexible; soft dorsal and anal moderate, of 20 to 30 rays; caudal subtruncate. Species 
attaching themselves to large fishes, especially to sharks. 
Echeneis (Artedi) Linnreus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, 260, 1758 ( remora , the only species known to Artedi). 
Remora Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sei. Pliila. 1862, 289 (remora). 
Echeneis Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sei. Phila. 1864, 60 (remora)', not Echeneis Gill, 1862, restricted to naucrates. 
Remoropsis Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1864, 60 (brachypterus). 
Remorina Jordan & Evermann, Check last Fishes, 490, 1896 ( albescens ). 
411. Echeneis remora Linnaeus. 
Head 4; disk 2.75; width between pectorals 5.25. D. xvm-23; A. 25; vertebra? 12 + 15. Body 
comparatively robust, compressed behind; pectoral fins rounded, short, and broad, their rays short 
and flexible; ventral fins adnate to the abdomen for more than one-half the length of their inner edge; 
tip of lower jaw not produced into a flap; head broad, depressed; disk longer than the dorsal or the 
anal fin; maxillary scarcely reaching front of orbit; caudal lunate; vertical fins rather high; pectoral 
three-fifths length of head. Color blackish, nearly uniform above and below. Length 15 inches. 
Warm seas; usually found attached to large sharks. Color in life all more or less violet blackish; the 
lobes of the caudal paler. 
We have but a single example (No. 527), 3.6 inches long, taken at Honolulu; others were taken 
by the Albatross at Hanalei Bay, Kauai, and at various dredging stations. 
Echeneis remora Linnaaus, Syst. Nat., Ed. X, 260, 1758, "in Pelago Indico;” Gunther, Cat., II, 378, 1860; Liitken, Vid.Medd. 
Kjobehn. 1875, 38; Jordan <k Gilbert, Synopsis, 417,1883; Gunther, Challenger Report, Pelagic Fishes, XXXI, 18, 
1889 (Sandwich Islands); Snyder, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., XXII, 1902 (Jan. 19, 1904), 536 (Hanalei Bay, Kauai; 
Albatross stations 3869, 3879, 3887, 3934, 3938, 3973). 
Echeneis squalipeta Daldorf, Skrivt. Nat.Selsk. Copenhagen, 1793, 157, Atlantic Ocean between the Tropics; Gunther, Cat , 
II, 377, 1860 (Atlantic between the Tropics). % 
Echeneis'jacobica Lowe, Proc. Zool. Soe. London 1839, 89. Madeira. 
Echeneis par va Gronow, Cat. Fish., Ed. Gray, 92, 1854, no locality; after E. remora L. 
Echeneis renioroides Bleeker, Nat. Tijds. Ned. Ind., IX, 1855, 70, Batoe. 
Echeneispostica Poey, Memorias, II, 255, 1861, Havana. (Coll. Poey.) 
Remora jacobxa. Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1862. 240. 
412. Echeneis albescens Temminek & Schlegel. 
Length of disk 3.2 to 3.25 in total length; width between pectorals 5 to 5.3; number of laminae on 
disk 13 or 14. I >. xm-22; A. 22; angle of month in the vertical from the third lamina of the disk; length 
of ventral fins equal to the distance between root of pectoral and posterior margin of eye. Color uniform 
