Largest genus of conger eel

The largest genus of conger eel is Ariosoma, which contains no fewer than 29 species, including such familiar species as the silver eel A. mellissii, the sea conger A. anagoides, the band-tooth conger A. balearicum and the long-finned conger A. dolichopterum, this last-mentioned species being formally described and named as recently as 2015.

The band-tooth conger was formally described and named as long ago as 1809, by François Étienne Delaroche, who included it in the genus Muraena, which nowadays is confined to moray eels. Later that same year, however, he correctly reclassified it as a conger eel, but housed it in the genus Conger, before subsequently reassigning it to Ariosoma again in 1809.