Revised 22 March 2023
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Anguilla Schrank 1798 Latin for eel, derived from anguis (L.), snake, referring to snake-like body shape (tautonymous with Muraena anguilla Linnaeus 1758)

Anguilla anguilla (Linnaeus 1758) Latin for eel, derived from anguis (L.), snake, referring to snake-like body shape

Anguilla australis Richardson 1841 Latin for southern, described from the “Australian seas,” specifically Port Arthur, Tasmania

Anguilla australis schmidtii Phillipps 1925 in honor of Danish biologist Johannes Schmidt (1877–1933), for his “great work” in investigating the life history of A. anguilla (Schmidt discovered that they migrate to the Sargasso Sea to spawn)

Anguilla bengalensis (Gray 1831) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Bengal (India), type locality

Anguilla bengalensis labiata (Peters 1852) lipped (L.), referring to its broad, thick lips (“labiis crassis latis”), a trait common to all anguillids

Anguilla bicolor McClelland 1844 bi-, from bis (L.), twice, i.e., of two colors, dark olive-green or brown above and white below

Anguilla bicolor pacifica Schmidt 1928 –ica (L.), belonging to: referring to its occurrence in the tropical southern Pacific, at and just north of the Equator [treated as a full species by some workers]

Anguilla borneensis Popta 1924 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: eastern Borneo, type locality

Anguilla celebesensis Kaup 1856 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Lake Tondano, Celebes (now Sulawesi), Indonesia, type locality

Anguilla dieffenbachii Gray 1842 in honor of German surgeon-naturalist Ernst Dieffenbach (1811–1855), who collected natural history specimens in New Zealand for the British Museum, including holotype of this eel

Anguilla interioris Whitley 1938 Latin for inner, referring to its distribution in the upper Purari River of central New Guinea, elevation 1737 m, with no apparent connection to the sea

Anguilla japonica Temminck & Schlegel 1846 –ica (L), belonging to: Japan, type locality

Anguilla luzonensis Watanabe, Ayoama & Tsukamoto 2009 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: northern Luzon Island, Philippines, type locality

Anguilla marmorata Quoy & Gaimard 1824 Latin for marbled, referring to greenish-brown to black marbling on its dorsal surface

Anguilla megastoma Kaup 1856 mégas (Gr. μέγας), large; stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, presumably referring to the dental surfaces of its mouth, described as “very broad”

Anguilla mossambica (Peters 1852) –ica (L.), belonging to: Mozambique, type locality

Anguilla nebulosa McClelland 1844 Latin for dark or cloudy, referring to its adult coloration, “green above variegated with darker shades”

Anguilla obscura Günther 1872 Latin for dark, referring to uniform dark coloration of upper half of body

Anguilla reinhardtii Steindachner 1867 patronym not identified, probably in honor of Danish zoologist Johannes Theodor Reinhardt (1816–1882), Director of the National Natural History Museum, Copenhagen

Anguilla rostrata (Lesueur 1817) Latin for beaked, possibly referring to the “elongated, pointed and strait” snout on the specimen Lesueur examined