2-982-188 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Flying fish, with a Parasitic Growth on its Back, 1858. "The flying-fish of which I send you a Sketch flew into the mizen-chains of Messrs Green's East Indiaman Monarch, while on her homeward voyage from Calcutta...On the back of the fish, to the right of the spine, and between the elongated pectoral fins, or wings, a singular looking growth protruded...this singular appendage consists of two distinct parts - 1st, the horny-looking stem which was attached to the fish. This is an animal belonging to the class Crustacea, family Lernaeidae, and bearing the name of Penellus Blainvillii. The part which was inserted into the muscles of the fish is the head, and its attachment is secured by those three rootlike processes or horns. The body is simple and cylindrical, and terminated by the tuft of filiform appendages. The animals of this family are all when young free, and swim by means of articulated limbs, but they soon fix themselves by their head to the external surface of some animal that lives in the water, as the skins, gills, or eyes of fish, lobsters, &c., and then pass the remainder of their lives as true external parasites, sucking the juices of the unfortunate creature to which they have attached themselves'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.