The present paper is the observation on the development of theartificially fertilized egg and larvas of the spotted grunt, Pomadasys hasta Bloch,which is an importnant fish of economic value and inhabits at the bottom of inshoresea. The spotted grunt usually aggregate in shoals and migrate towards the shallowwaters along the coast of the northern part of the Nan Hai sea,where the temperatureis 18--26℃, and salinity is 31.00--34 .35‰. The spawners were obtained from thetrawlers in the vicinity of the esturary of Pearl river(21°54'N, 113°30'E) in theyear of 1964. The eggs are apherical in shape, isolated and buoyant, measuring 0.77--0.81mm in diamter. The yolk is colourless and tranaparent with a single oil globule of0.19--0.23 mm in diameter. The blastopore closeed at 13 hours after inseminationwhen the water temperature was 24℃. The melanophores appears on the dorsal partof the embryo at 16 hours after insemination. The larvae hatched at 20 hours afterinsemination with water temperature of 25℃. The newly hatched larvae attained totallength of 1.61 mm and the fin membrance is colourless and transparent. Melano-phores appeared behind the eyes and on the dorsal part is well as at the rear of anus.Yellow sac was absorbed 2 days after hatching and the yellow pigment disappeared 3days after hatching. During this time the stellate melanophores occurred along the ventral part of the tail. The larvae all died 5 days after hatching.