Volume 39, Plate XX / Ichthyology (Fish)

Pennant’s Globe-Fish

Tetrodon Pennantii

Known from a single Penzance specimen by Pennant and a few later examples on the Cornish coast and near Waterford, Pennant’s Globe-Fish measures about a foot and a half, with a rich blue back, silvery white belly, and brown fins. Its distensible spiny skin fills with air and water then expels them with a loud noise, and Darwin recorded that when handled it emitted a beautiful permanent carmine secretion from the belly.