XIV. NOTES FROM THE BENGAL FISHERIES 

 LABORATORY, No. 6. 



EmbRYOLOGICAI. A.ND DEVELOPMENTAL STUDIES OF 



Indian Fishes. 



ByT. Southwell, A.R.C.Sc, F.Z.S., Director of Fisheries, Bengal 

 and Bihar and Orissa, and B. Prashad D.Sc, Superinten- 

 dent of Fisheries. 



(With Plates XVI— XIX.) 



This paper consists of four parts ; part one deals with two new 

 species of Leptocephalids found in the brackish waters of the 

 Gangetic Delta; in part two we have described the life-history of 

 an Indian Teleost — Notopterus chitala ; the third part is a descrip- 

 tion of the egg-capsule of an Indian dogfish, and the fourth con- 

 sists of descriptions of intra-uterine embryos of some Indian sharks 

 and rays, together with a discussion of various points of general 

 zoological interest resulting from this study. 



I. Leptocephalids. 



On the occasion of a visit, by one of us, to the Sunderbans, 

 during March 1918, well preserved specimens of two species of 

 Leptocephalids were obtained. 



Leptocephalus milnei, sp. nov. 

 (PI. XVI, fig. I.) 



This species has the usual band-like form. 



Description. — Number of segments in a specimen, 120. 



Length 55-4 mm. ; height 8-3 mm. ; head 4 mm. ; distance of 

 anus from the end of the tail, 13-2 mm. ; eye it mm. ; snout 1-3 

 mm. ; post temporal part of the head t6 mm. ; height 67 mm. ; 

 head 13-8 mm.; tail 4-2 times in total length. Snout rounded, 

 head portion posterior to it slightly convex. Eye 3*6 times in 

 the head, slightly smaller than the snout and about one and a half 

 times in the post temporal part of the head. Gape of the mouth 

 extending behind the eye. 



Anus below 79th segment, three times farther from the tip of 

 the snout than from the tail. Very minute teeth are present on 

 the lower and the upper jaws. 



Pectorals very small, rounded. Dorsal and anal fins with a 

 large number of fin-rays, three to each myosegment. 



