Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 3, 2026

Monopterus

Monopterus is a genus of swamp eels native to Asia. They live in various freshwater habitats and some have a fossorial lifestyle.

Last revised
Jun 3, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
301 w
Citations
6
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Monopterus
Monopterus albus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Synbranchiformes
Family: Synbranchidae
Subfamily: Synbranchinae
Genus: Monopterus
Lacépède, 1800
Type species
Monopterus javanicus
Synonyms1
  • Amphipnous Müller, 1840
  • Apterigia Basilewsky, 1855
  • Cryptophthalmus Franz, 1910
  • Fluta Bloch & Schneider, 1801
  • Ophicardia McClelland, 1844
  • Pneumabranchus McClelland, 1843
  • Unagius Jordan, 1919

Monopterus is a genus of swamp eels native to Asia.2 They live in various freshwater habitats and some have a fossorial lifestyle.3

Species

Four recognized species are placed in this genus:

  • M. albus (Zuiew, 1793) (Asian swamp eel)
  • M. bicolor H. D. Nguyễn & V. H. Nguyễn, 2005
  • M. dienbienensis V. H. Nguyễn & H. D. Nguyễn, 2005
  • M. javanensis Lacépède, 1800

Six species from South Asia (M. cuchia, M. desilvai, M. hodgarti, M. fossorius, M. ichthyophoides, and M. indicus) have been reclassified to the genus Ophichthys.4 Four fossorial or subterranean species (M. digressus, M. eapeni, M. rongsaw, and M. roseni) from India have been reclassified to the genus Rakthamichthys.5 Two species from Africa (M. boueti and M. luticolus) have been reclassified to the genus Typhlosynbranchus.5

References

References

  1. Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Synbranchidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  2. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Monopterus". FishBase. March 2017 version.
  3. Britz, R., Doherty-Bone, T.M., Kouete, M.T., Sykes, D. & Gower, D.J. (2016): Monopterus luticolus, a new species of swamp eel from Cameroon (Teleostei: Synbranchidae). Archived 2016-12-24 at the Wayback Machine Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 27 (4): 309-323.
  4. "Ophichthys desilvai, a poorly known synbranchid eel from Sri Lanka (Teleostei: Synbranchidae)". Pfeil Verlag (in German). Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  5. "Osteology of 'Monopterus' roseni with the description of Rakthamichthys, new genus, and comments on the generic assignment of the Amphipnous Group species (Teleostei: Synbranchiformes)". Dr. Friedrich Pfeil Publishing. Retrieved 2021-01-28.