Leptocephalus

Willow leaf larva or Leptocephalus is the flat and transparent larva of the eel-like fish, and all other Elopomorpha called. From it after the larval period in the course of migration of the so-called glass eels developed. The German name alludes to the pasture leaf-like appearance.

This larva was originally described as a distinct genus of fish called Leptocephalus.

As early as 1886 showed Yves Marie Delage ( 1854-1920 ) in the station biologique de Roscoff, that it was at the "Art " Leptocephalus morisii to young conger eels ( Conger conger, Linnaeus, 1758). ( The willow leaf larva had already been assessed earlier as a larva, eg of moray eels. )

In 1887 the Italian zoologist Professor Giovanni Batista Grassi examined with his colleague in the Mediterranean Calandruccio leptocephali. 1894 published its findings, namely that the alleged nature Leptocephalus in reality brevirostris the larva of the European eel.

At the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) this larval period lasts about three years and is experienced in the Atlantic, as elvers he then wanders into the Western European rivers.

Phylogenetically this larval form is also interesting insofar as one can deduce from it that the ancestors of the eels in the snake-like physique so slim were not ( application of the biogenetic rule after E. Haeckel ).

• Larva
• Ichthyology