Use of early life history stages of fish in systematic and ecological studies has increased in recent years. It is recognized that eggs and larvae present a wide array of characters that are largerly indenpendent of adult characters and suitable for a systematic analysis. Fisheries recruitment studies focus on the survival of eggs and larvae as the most important factor influencing variations in population abundance. A requisite to these studies is detailed information on the appearance of fish eggs and larvae in order to identify them in plankton samples. Family Scombridae is a of a great interest to the Croatian fishery. This paper reviews all available information on the early developmental stages of the family Scomridae in the eastern Adriatic.