Hybridization was carried out between Silurus asotus (♀) and S. meridionalis (♂) by means of artificial insemination. The embryonic development of hybrid F1 was investigated and the morphological characteristics of each period were described for the clarification of early ontogeny of the hybrids and further verification of the feasibility of hybridization between the S. asotus and S. meridionalis. The fertilized eggs were treated with 0.3% trypsin to remove the stickiness. Observation and photographing were performed by using stereo microscope Leica MZ16 A. Sampling and observation were taken at intervals of 15min at early stage while this was conducted every 30min after gastrula. The size of fertilized eggs and the length of embryos were measured by means of appendix software of Leica DC500 photography system. The fertilized eggs were greenish, spherical in shape. The swollen zygotes were 2.50±0.14mm in diameter and became heavily adhesive with a jelly coat. Under water temperature 24.5±0.6℃, it took 48min after fertilization to form blastoderm, about 1h 35min to undergo cleavage, 4h 23min to develop to early blastula stage, 7h 22min to early gastrula stage, 11h 23min to neurula stage, then to organ differentiation and gradual perfection stage. Larval hatching took place at 28h 49min after fertilization and all larvae hatched at 40h 33min. The fertilization rate, hatching rate and malformation rate were 89.7%, 55.3% and 5.9%, respectively, which indicated that there was a low cross-incompatibility between female S. asotus and male S. meridionalis. The overall embryonic development process and the morphological characters were much closer to those of its maternal fish, S. asotus, featuring significant characteristics of maternal inheritance.