Igg The Philippine Journal of Science 1923 



equal to or longer than upper jaw; teeth weak, pointed, one 

 rowed, on palatines, nasal, vomer, and intermaxillaries ; tail 

 much shorter than body; heart placed far behind gills. 



Small and usually very slender eels, noticeable for the slight 

 development of the fins and the very short tail. They are found 

 buried in mud, sand, or gravel, in salt or brackish water on 

 reefs along the coast or in river mouths, and they often enter 

 fresh-water streams. They are abundant in the East Indies and 

 are distributed from India to Hawaii and the South Sea Islands, 

 and from Japan to the northern coast of Australia. 



These insignificant eels astonishingly resemble certain worms ; 

 the species are difficult to distinguish, the characters altering 

 greatly with age. 



Key to the Philippine species of Aphthalmichthys. 

 a 1 . Head less than 10 in length. 



b\ Head 8.5 to 9.9, depth 32 to 43 in length A. macrocephalus. 



b 2 . Head 8.92, depth 285 in length A. lumbricoideus. 



a 2 . Head more than 10 in length. 



c*. Head 10 to 13.3, depth 35 to 47 in length A. abbreviate. 



c 2 . Head 14 to 22, depth 55 to 95 in length A. javanicus. 



Aphthalmichthys macrocephalus Bleeker. Plate 9, fig. 2. 



Aphthalmichthys macrocephalus Bleeker, Ned. Tijdschr. Dierk. 1 

 (1863) 165; Atlas Ichth. Muraen. 4 (1864) 17, pi. 3, fig. 2; Peters, 

 Monatsher. Akad. Wiss. Berlin (1868) (1869) 275. 

 Moringua macrocephala Jordan and Seale, Bull. U. S. Bur. Fisheries 

 25 (1905) (1906) 195; Weber and Beaufort, Fishes Indo-Austr. 

 Arch. 3 (1916) 341. 



Depth 32 to 43 in length, head 7.7 to 9.9, and 4.23 to 5.8 in 



trunk (4, Jordan and Seale) ; tail 2.12 to 2.18 in head and trunk 



together in my specimens (1.7 to 2.3, Weber and Beaufort) ; the 



n minute eyes 17.3 to 22 in head 



O o K & anc * 2 *° 2 ^ * n snou t; mouth 



q O a /To relatively large, lower jaw pro- 



§° ° £ % jecting as in nearly all Morin- 



8 ° % o £ ^ guidae, gape 4 to 4.72 in head 



# o c % i d % and extending well beyond eyes ; 



teeth conical, sharp, pointing 



backward; six to eight on each 



maxillary, with about eight 



stouter teeth on intermaxillary 



plate; four to five small teeth in a single row on vomer, the 



anterior tooth largest; ten or twelve teeth on each side of 



lower jaw, the anterior ones largest. 



