45 
in the winter, so that the life-cvcle is as follows: the Conger 
vulgaris spawns in spring and summer in regions where the 
depths are very great and the water warm and salt (above 36,00 
o/oo). During winter the larvae reach half their full size and in 
the following spring and summer the metamorphosis takes place; 
thus, they live pelagically for 1 to 2 years. The very long 
duration of the pelagic life accounts for the faet that the larvae of 
the Conger, like those of the fresh-water eel, are able to spread 
over such wide regions. 
Besides from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean I have seen 
larvae of the same type as those of the common Conger from the 
Inland Sea of Japan. 
2. C. ( Congromuræna ) mystax. This species belongs to the 
Mediterranean, where however its larvae were formerly only known 
from the Messina Straits. Our investigations have shown that they 
occur everywhere in the Mediterranean, but outside this sea only a 
few specimens have been found in the Atlantic not far from Gib- 
raltar. The occurrence of the larvae shows that it spawns later 
in the year than Conger vulgaris , i. e. later in summer and autumn, 
at which times of the year the smallest stages are found, and it 
is possible that this species spawns a little nearer the coasts than 
Conger vulgaris. 
Stromman mentions a form from the South Atlantic 
(35° 40' S., 18° 45' E.), which seems to be very closely related to 
C. mystax. 
3. C. ( Congromuræna ) balearicus. We have two fairly 
modern descriptions of eel-larvae, by Stromman (1896), and by 
Eigenmann and Kennedy (1902) x ). But only the latter is of 
any use for a certain identification of the species. Stromman 
does not give the number of vertebræ, so that none of his species 
0 I have described a Leptocephalus from the Atlantic under the liame 
of L. latus (Medd. Komm. Havunders., Ser. Fiskeri, Bind III, Nr. 6, 
1909), but had overlooked the faet that this name was alreadv 
occupied. I now propose the name L. latissimus. 
