BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 159 



to identify the parent form is mere conjecture, and tends to 

 confusion. I shall, therefore, content myself with drawing 

 attention to the entire absence of any vestige of caudal fin, and 

 make the obvious suggestion that our form is the larva of one of 

 the ophichthyoid eels; so far, however, none of these eels are known 

 to occur on our coast, or at least very rarely.* 



In considering the subject of the parentage of these larvfe we 

 must not lose sight of the fact that they are not confined to the 

 apodal fishes, but are common also to certain isospondylous and 

 iniomous genera, such as Albida, Elops,Alepocephaluii, and Stomiasi. 

 Fiera.i/er also is said to pass through similar transitional stages. 



The following description is taken from the three examples 

 above referred to : — 



Body riband-shaped, of about equal depth throughout, consist- 

 ing of 148 to 150 metameres, its depth 13 to 17 in its length. 

 Head moderate, not conspicuously distinguished from the body, 

 from which it is separated above by a more or less shallow con- 

 cavity, its length 16| to 21 in the total length; snout rather long 

 and pointed, gently ascending on its anterior moiety ; cleft of 

 mouth wide, extending to between the middle and posterior 

 border of the e3^e. Upper jaw with five, lower with six sti^ong, 

 acute, lanceolate, widely set teeth in each ramus, directed forwards 

 and inwards; one or two small teeth, normally directed, between 

 each pair of large teeth; the anterior pair in 

 each jaw are strongly compressed, and origi- 

 nate on the outside (above and below) of the 

 mouth. Eye moderate, its diameter i to |^ 

 of the head and about i of the snout. Dorsal fin oriirinatinff 



* Oj^hisurus serpens has been recorded once from Port Jackson, and is 

 found as far south as Tasmania, whence I have recorded a specimen in very 

 bad condition. 



+ Jordan and Evermann, discussing the ancestry of the apodal fishes, 

 remark: — "The Apode-s are probably descended from Isospondylous or 

 Iniomous types, possibly from ancestors of the Anacanthini, and their 

 divergence from typical forms is, in most respects, a retrogression." I 

 have not seen Dr. Gilbert's papers dealing with these isospondylous larvae. 



