Studies on the leptocephali of Bombay waters II. The Metamorphosing stages of Murrenesox talabon (Cantor)

Abstract

The leptocephalus of Muranesox talaborl generally occurs in the 'dol' net catches along with that of Muranesox talabonoides and the collection contains several specimens and 2 elvers (vide Introduction, Nair and Mohamed, 1960 a). Some of the larva: showed the full set of larval teeth while in the others they have fallen off indicating the commencement of metamorphosis. A few leptocephali showing intermediate stages of metamorphosis and the elvers present in the collection made it possible to get a more or less connected series of stages in the transformation.