Scorpaena Volitans
The Scorpaena Volitans whose name is an indication of its seductive & deadly beauty. I love old color plates, and this plate is almost 2 centuries ago, published in 1833. Plates exhibit a lost art and craft akin to some of the subjects of focus itself. It’s habitat, the Coast of Ceylon, has been since renamed a more familiar, Sri-Lanka. The history of fishing is not just in the lures we use to catch them but appreciating some of these natural wonders. Catching this fish on either the fly or spin would be a treat until faced with having to dismount this thing off your hook.
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Scorpaena Volitans
Native Name, Gini-Maha
Gini, Fire – Maha, Great
Branchiostegous rays 6. Dorsal 24, thirteen spinous, varied with black and reddish brown; the colors stronger on the spinous rays than on the others. Pectoral 14; the connecting membrane bluish and brown. Ventral 6, one spinous, bluish, spotted with white. Anal 10, three spinous. Caudal12.
The Gini-Maha of the Cingalese accords with the description given by the Bloch of the Scorpaena Volitans, with the exception of the number of radii in the dorsal fin, Bloch gives 12 only.
The native fisherman attribute to this fish the power of inflicting wounds, for which there is no cure yet known; but that at present, is a mere hypothesis, and should be received as such.
Although the name given to this animal by Linnaeus would justify the supposition that it possesses the power of flying., the membranes of the pectoral fins are not sufficiently united or proportioned to the body to admit of volitation: a position which the native fishers unanimously confirm.
