leptocephalus
(lɛptəʊˈsɛfələs)
[mod.L. (L. T. Gronovius Zoophylacium Gronovianum (1763) I. 135), f. lepto- + Gr. κεϕαλή head.]
The transparent leaf-shaped larva of a fish of the order Anguilliformes, or eels, or one belonging to the genus Elops or Albula. The larva was first described as a distinct genus; see leptocephalan, leptocephalid (lepto-), morris n.3
| 1769 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. III. 125 We communicated it [sc. the fish] to that accurate Ichthyologist Doctor Laurence Theodore Gronovius, of Leyden, who has described it in his Zoophylacium, under the title of Leptocephalus, or small head. 1880 A. C. L. G. Günther Introd. Study Fishes xiii. 179 No instance is more remarkable than that of the so-called Leptocephali, which for a long time have been regarded either as a distinct group of Fishes, or as the larval stages of various genera of fishes. 1931 J. R. Norman Hist. Fishes xvi. 336 The first British Leptocephalus was discovered in 1763 by one William Morris near Holyhead. 1971 Nature 2 Apr. 278/3 In January 1930, the Danish Dana Expedition captured a leptocephalus on the Agulhas Bank, south of Africa, which was 184 cm long. |