Bigelow and Schroeder's Fishes of the Gulf of Maine

CANDIRU: LIFE AND LEGEND OF THE BLOODSUCKING CATFISHES. Stephen Spotte. 2002. Creative Arts Book Company, 833 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, California 94710. ISBN 088739-469-8. xii 1 322 p. $24.50 (paperback). —It might be difficult to devise a title more attractive to ichthyologists and others steeped in fish lore than the one created for this book; titles of some of the chapters (Urinary Misconduct, Embracing Urine, Hora do Amor) may entice those with other interests. In some detail Spotte presents descriptive material for the 15 species of catfishes (mostly in the genera Vandellia and Plectrochilus) that he considers as candirus (family Trichomycteridae: subfamily Vandelliinae). His definition (p. 4, repeated on p. 50) of candiru(s) is ‘‘those trichomycterid catfishes known to suck blood from the gills of other fishes and thought to live on blood exclusively. ’’ His concept of candiru, as he acknowledges in an endnote (p. 233, Endnote 9), differs from that of some authors: ‘‘I’ve taken the additional liberty of assuming those species I call ‘true’ candirus are obligate bloodsuckers, although the existence of exclusively sanguinivorous fishes requires confirmation. ’’ The proclivities, or alleged proclivities, of candirus to enter orifices of the human body have aroused the prurient interests of adolescents of all ages. The vagina and urethra seem to be the portals of choice, with the anus also reported to have received the attention of these fishes. There are even stories of candirus entering ears and noses. In the penultimate chapter entitled The Smoking Gun, Spotte provided a detailed account of a candiru encounter that occurred in October 1997 during a young man’s untoward riverine micturating experience. According to that report, the invading ‘‘fish had darted out of the water, up the urine stream, and into his urethra’’ (p. 213, emphasis in the original). Much of the book is taken up with recounting candiru anecdotes reported by scientists, explorers, and adventurers, and considerable space is devoted to the field and laboratory experiences of Spotte and his colleagues Paulo Petry and Jansen A. S. Zuanon. The author and associates expended considerable effort collecting candirus and later conducted experiments designed to illuminate their behavior. In the Introduction (p. xi), the author stated: ‘‘My narrative is neither wholly factual nor entirely fictitious. The candiru hovers before us like a wraith, its biology no less elusive than its legend. ’’ In much of the text, Spotte interleaves myth and hearsay with fact, explanation, and disbelief and in the last chapter, Candiru World, best left unread, wanders off into a realm of fantasia. For ichthyologists, the most important contributions in the book are the presentation (in chapters 3 and 4) of descriptions from the literature of candiru taxa (many in translation with their sources in the original languages provided in the endnotes) and the compilation of references, constituting a Literature Cited of 22 pages. The 57 black-and-white illustrations are generally appropriate and mostly good, and the eight plates (four in color) are good to excellent. Candiru will appeal mainly to those interested in the freshwater fishes of South America or captivated by the mystique of the Amazon basin. This is Contribution Number 204 of the Grice Marine Biological Laboratory.