The Adhesive Apparatus of the "Sucking-fish"

Abstract

EARLY in 1923 I published in NATURE a short summary of my views regarding the mechanism of the so-called suckers of certain hill-stream fishes and of the “Sucking-fish” —Echeneis.1 My conclusions were based on an examination of the living specimens of two Indian genera of hill-stream fishes—Pseudecheneis and Glyptothorax, and on a study of preserved material of Echeneis. Later, at my request, Major R. B. Seymour Sewell, Surgeon-Naturalist to the Marine Survey of India, very kindly performed a series of experiments on living specimens of Echeneis. Quite recently (September 1924) I have been able to conduct a few experiments on the “Sucking-fish” in the Marine Aquarium at Madras. In carrying out these experiments I received great help from Dr. Sundara Raj, acting director of the Madras Fisheries, and Prof. H. Parameswaran, of the Presidency College.