Structure of the Sucker of Echeneis

Abstract

A CENTURY ago Gunther¹ stated thus: “There is scarcely a fish of the existence of which the ancients have been equally certain and which has so much occupied their imagination—from a power thought to be inherent in the creature to counteract the strongest physical agencies—as the Echeneis of the Greeks or the Remora of the Latins”. This was followed in 1918 by Gudger², who called it “The most interesting of the marine fishes not merely from the popular but even more from the scientific point of view”. He, however, could not reconcile himself to the view that the fish could exert enormous pressure, and accepting Ekman's “deadwater theory” said “Another myth of the ancients is dissipated in thin air”. Norman³ describes the sucker as being a highly specialized structure but goes no further. I have directed attention⁴ to the presence of a pear-shaped body, the pyriboss, and a chamber in front of it, and the possibility that the plates are lowered rather than raised adhering. Mention is made of the pyriboss as “a curious round ossification” and the chamber as “a notch at the posterior extremity” by Storms⁵.