BIM ACULATED SUCKER . 
303 
III, p. 3G1; Day, Fish. Gt. Brit. Irel., vol. I, p. 192, tab. 
LVII, fig. 3; Lill.i., Sv., Norg. Fisk., vol. I, p. 739; Coll., 
N. Mag. Naturv., Bd. 29, p. 73. 
Lepadog aster ocellatus + Desfontainii 4- reticulatus + Mirbelii , 
Risso, Ichtli. Nice, p. 74 et 77; Fur. Mer., vol. Ill, p. 
275 et 277; Mirbelia Desfontainii, Canestr., Arch. Zool. 
Anat. Fisiol., vol. Ill, fasc. I, p. 192, tab. Ill, figs. 5 et 6. 
Lepadogaster ocellatus + macvlatus + punctatus + lineatus , 
Guich., Fxplor. Alger., Sc. Phys., Zool., V, pp. 109 et 
110, tab. 6, figs. 3 — 5. 
The length of the Bimaculated Sucker probably 
does not exceed about 5*/ 2 or 6 cm. The largest spe- 
cimen mentioned by Canestrini was 53 mm. long. Day 
assumes that it attains a length of at least 2 in. (51 
mm.); and Moreau states that its maximum length is 
60 mm. According to v. Duben and Korea its usual 
length on the coast of Norway is at most 37 nun. The 
specific name of this fish is derived from a very sin- 
gular, but inconstant marking, and all the numerous 
synonyms given above are due chiefly to the variability 
of the coloration. “The ground-colour is always reddish”, 
say v. Duben and Koren, “clear and bright, with a 
more or less pronounced dash of yellow, which forms 
small, irregularly arranged spots and dots or continuous 
bands, along the back and sides, or a row of large 
spots across the back etc. Straight across the forehead, 
between the eyes, we generally find a lighter streak, 
and behind the latter a darker-coloured belt extends 
across the body. On the sides, just behind the base 
of the pectoral fins, there generally, though not always, 
appears a round, black or dark purple spot, very dis- 
tinctly and sharply marked and edged with a narrow, 
white stripe. The belly and the whole of the under 
surface are usually light yellow, with or without red 
spots or streaks on the lower jaw and the sides of the 
tail. The eyeballs are grayish olive-green at the top, 
with a brownish band in the middle, and below this 
somewhat lighter. The iris is golden-yellow, the pupil 
with beautiful shades of green and blue. The pectoral 
fins and the whole of the adhesive apparatus are always 
without spots, but the unpaired fins are mottled with 
yellow and red, more or less broken, transverse bands.” 
Montagu" describes the colour of the fry as green, 
finely dotted with blue, and without the least trace of 
the two pectoral spots. 
On the coast of Norway, at least at certain spots 
to the south-west, between Stavanger and Trondhjem, 
the Bimaculated Sucker can hardly lie called rare, if 
not common. It occurs at a depth of 20 or 30 fathoms, 
especially where the bottom is soft and strewn with 
shells to which it may attach itself and its eggs. “On 
one occasion,” write v. Duben and Koren, “five spe- 
cimens were taken together, attached to the shell of a 
Cyprina islandica. On taking this little fish out of the 
water with the hand, it instantly attaches itself to the 
finger; even when thrown into alcohol, it sometimes 
adheres to the side of the vessel for a moment. Even 
in the water it is generally seen keeping quite still 
and adhering to some object, with the tail bent for- 
wards, right up to the head * 6 . The eyeballs are extra- 
ordinarily prominent" and may be turned, independently 
of each other (almost more than in the Flounders), in 
every direction; and when the fish is fixed to the bot- 
tom, it follows with its eyes, without the slightest turn 
of the head, every movement of any object, a pair of 
pincers for example, drawn through the water round 
about it. If the pincers come too near, the fish winces 
slightly, or moves in, a gliding manner, without loosing 
its hold. If it is torn away by force, it makes all 
possible haste to re-attach itself to the first suitable 
object.” There is only one instance recorded of its 
occurrence in Sweden. On this occasion a specimen 
26 V 2 ram. long was taken by Dr. Carl Aurivillius^ 
in a dredge, among the Weather Islands (Vaderoarne) 
off Fjellbacka, at a depth of about 40 fathoms, on the 
so-called Coral Bank, east of Storo. In Denmark it is 
unknown, but south of its true habitat, the Mediter- 
ranean, it has been found by Steindachner" off Teneriffe. 
According to Risso the female is large with roe 
towards the end of May. On the 20th of July, on 
the coast of County Down (Ireland), Hyndman / took 
in a dredge, at a depth of 15 fathoms, a Venus vir- 
ginea , in which he found a Bimaculated Sucker, to- 
gether with the eggs and some specimens of the newly- 
“ Mem. Wern. Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. I, p. 92. 
6 The fishes of the preceding family have the same habit, as we have remarked above. 
c “No words,” says Hughes, “can describe the singular beauty of its eyes. They are perfectly gemmeous, and appear like living 
opals set in burnished gold.” 
d According to Lilljeborg, 1. c. 
e Stzber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math. Naturw. Cl., LVII. i (1868), p. 686. 
f See Thompson, Nat. Hist. Irel., vol. IV, p. 213. 
