William Yarrell (1836) in "A History of British Fishes":
William Yarrell (1836) in "A History of British Fishes" (about the then considered as a separate species, but actually being the larval stage of Lampetra planeri):
Generic Characters. -- Form of the body, the branchial apertures and fins, like those of the Lampreys ; upper lip semicircular, with a straight, transverse under lip; mouth without teeth, but furnished with numerous short membranous cirri.
THIS small fish is very similar in its general appearance to the young of the Lampreys found in fresh water; but its prominent lip is in the form of a horse-shoe, and the circle not being complete, it has not the power of adhering to stones and other substances like the true Lampreys, but generally hides itself in the mud or loose sandy bottoms of rivers and brooks in this country, in most of which it will be found, but requires close search to detect it. It is of little value, seldom exceeding six or seven inches in length, and is about as thick as a large quill. It was formerly considered to be a Lamprey, and was called Petromyzon cœcus by Ray, on account of its very small eyes: it afterwards had the trivial name of branchialis bestowed upon it by Linnæus, from a notion that it attached itself to the gills of fishes. It is said to be common about Oxford, and was called by Dr. Plot, in his History of Oxfordshire, the Pride of the Isis ; Prid being an ancient diminutive for Lamprey. It is very common in the Thames about Hampton, where it is called Sandpride. Mr. Jesse says the Eel is one of its greatest enemies, and feeds greedily upon it. I have received it from Hertfordshire, and some other inland counties. It spawns at the end of April or the beginning of May, and feeds upon worms, insects, and dead or even putrid animal matter. Mr. Couch says, "I find this species frequents our smaller streams in Cornwall, living in the muddy bottom, from which it rarely, if ever, willingly emerges. I have kept it for months in stagnant water, with mud at the bottom, without injury to its health or activity. The only apparent use of its fins is to enable it to regain its station, when forced from it by violent torrents. When kept in clear water it seems to sleep much. I have never found this species to attach itself to any object by the mouth ; but the lips are capable of extensive and complicated motions. Our fishermen collect them to use as bait for their hooks when whiffing for Pollacks." The upper lip and the mouth in this species, as shown in the enlarged. representation of the lower surface of the head under the figure of the whole fish, is in the form of a horseshoe; the inner part furnished with numerous short and slender membranous cirri ; "the lingual. and palatine plates somewhat harder than the other portion, but no true teeth: "on the top of the forehead is a small orifice and canal, which leads to the internal tube between and connected with each lateral set of branchial cells, as in the Lampreys ; the eye is very small, so much so as to have been occasionally overlooked, and it is situated at the bottom of a small and deep depression : the branchial apertures are seven on each side, arranged along a kind of lateral groove: the body of the fish at this part is rather tumid; behind this the form of the body is nearly round, the portion beyond the anal opening compressed : there are two dorsal fins, the first short and low, the second longer and higher, with a distinct diminution between it and the first dorsal fin, and also with the dilated membrane forming the caudal fin, which is somewhat rounded, the fleshy portion of the tail being pointed; a narrow slip of membrane forms an anal fin. Some variations occur in specimens of this fish from different localities, and there is even reason to suppose that two species may exist. The most frequent colour is yellowish brown, approaching to blackish brown on the top of the head and upper part of the back, much lighter underneath and on the fins. The vignette was copied from a sketch of a fishing party made by.T. Stothard, R.A. about the year 1780.
Frank Buckland (1880) in "Natural History of British Fishes":
(Petromyzon branchialis. Ammocœtes branchialis)
Local names: Pride, Sand pride, Sand-prey. Blue Lamprey, Mud-Lamprey, Sand-lurker, Stone-grig. German: Die Uhle. French: Le Lamprillon.
THIS little fish is very like the lampern, and seldom exceeds eight inches long, and girth about the size of a tobacco pipe ; by some it is said to be the young of Petromyzon planeri, planer’s lamprey.
Alwyne Wheeler (1969) in "The Fishes of the British Isles and North West Europe":
NAMES Fr. Lamproie de rivière; Du. Beekprik; Ge. Bachneunauge; Da. Baek lampret.
IDENTIFICATION The Ammocoetes are slender, worm-like in appearance and rarely more than 6 in (15 cm) long, as well as being toothless and blind. The two dorsal fins are continuous, but there is a conspicuous dip in the margin of the fin near the tail (Fig. 7). The fins are unpigmented except close to the body. The adults possess functional eyes and have a small sucking disc, although the teeth are weakly developed and blunt, and the animal does not feed as an adult. The dorsal fins are continuous. The adult brook lamprey usually measures less than the largest larvae, i.e. 8 in (20 cm). Colour, slate grey dorsally, sometimes brownish, ventrally white or yellowish.
BIOLOGY A non-parasitic lamprey, it does not migrate downriver to the sea. The larval life of the brook lamprey continues for five years. During this time it lives buried in dark, organically rich mud where the current is sluggish, often under a deposit of rotting leaves, vegetation or debris. Metamorphosis, which takes place at a length of from 5½-7 in (14-18 cm), begins in the autumn and ends in early spring. The adult does not feed, the gut atrophies, and after spawning in the year it matures, it dies. Spawning takes place in spring (early April in the British Isles), but the precise date is determined by water temperature. The area selected as a spawning ground is usually a shaded or partly shaded, gravel- or sandy-bottomed stream, from 10 to 18 in (25-46 cm) in depth. As with other lampreys, the pebbles are removed to form a shallow depression with a sandy bottom in which the eggs are laid. These are large and relatively few, numbering about 1200 eggs per female. The growth rate of the prides has been recorded as from 1½ - 2 in (4 - 5 cm) at the end of the first year, 3 - 3¼ in (8 - 8.5 cm) in the second, 4 in (10 - 10.5 cm) in the third, 4¼ - 5 in (11-12.5 cm) at the fourth year, but the actual growth rate varies from stream to stream and also with the annual mean temperature. There is very little growth during the winter months and none if the water temperature falls consistently below 10 °C (50 °F). This is no doubt the reason why in higher latitudes the larval life is longer (six years) than in the south of England, where it is five years. Although prides of different lengths (and thus different ages) are often found together, it is more usual to find the larger specimens further downstream than the newly hatched, which suggests that there is a tendency to migrate downstream during their development. Brook lampreys are the most common lampreys in British streams, probably due to their nonmigratory habits, which do not bar them from polluted lower reaches of rivers. In general, where both they and lamperns occur in a stream, the brook lampreys occupy the head-waters and breed well upstream of the lamperns. They have no commercial value, but are said to make very good angling bait.
DISTRIBUTION Replaced by L. zanandrea Vladykov, 1958 in the Po catchment of N. Italy.