Abstract
The numbers of predorsal, ano-dorsal, preanal, abdominal, caudal, and total vertebrae in and shortly after the elver stage of 9 species and subspecies of eels from the various areas in the world were counted.The numbers of vertebrae in such sections are useful for the specific identification when the ranges of variations do not overlap between the respective species.A key to the species was given based on the sectional counts of vertebrae.Moreover, the graphic representations of the correlation between the number of vertebrae in respective sections facilitate the identification of most species.
