Echeneis (fish)
Genus of fishes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Echeneis is a genus of fish in the family Echeneidae, the remoras. The genus is distributed in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.[4]
| Echeneis | |
|---|---|
| |
| E. naucrates, showing suction disc | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Carangiformes |
| Suborder: | Carangoidei |
| Family: | Echeneidae |
| Genus: | Echeneis Linnaeus, 1758 |
| Type species | |
| Leptecheneis lunata Linnaeus, 1758[2] | |
| Synonyms[3] | |
| |
The generic name Echeneis comes from the Greek echein meaning "to hold" and naus meaning "ship", a reference to the ability of these fish to attach themselves to the hulls of vessels and, in legend, to slow them down.[5]
Species
The currently recognized species in this genus are:[4]
- Echeneis naucrates Linnaeus, 1758 – live sharksucker
- Echeneis neucratoides Zuiew, 1789 – whitefin sharksucker
