The eggs and early development of a muraenid eel

Occurrence of eel eggs in the Indian coastal waters has been recorded only on a few occasions, probably owing to their relative scarcity. The first to report of their occurrence were Aiyar, Unny and Varkey (1944) from the Madras Coast. Nair and Bhimachar (1950) described three types of eggs and two types of early larvae from the plankton off Tuticorin, Gulf of Mannar. Bapat (1955)gave brief notes on an eel egg and newly-hatched larva from the plankton of Mandapam area. Descriptions of the early larvae belonging to Ophichthyidae, obtained by rearing the eggs collected from Madras Coast are given by Jones and Pantulu (1955). Ganapati and Raju (1960) described the eggs and early development of Muraenasp. and Ophichthyis sp. off WaUair Coast. Nair and Dharmamba (1960) gave an account of the early development of an Ophichthyid egg from the Lawson's Bay, Waltair. The present communication deals with the eggs and early development of a Muraenid spedes, collected off Cannanore, south-west coast of India