The complete larval development ofBrachynotus sexdentatus(Risso, 1827) was obtained by culture in the laboratory. Five zoeal stages, megalop and first crab are described and illustrated. Larval development from hatching to megalop stage took a minimum of 17 days at 23°C. The morphological characters of the larvae ofB. sexdentatusare compared with those of the previous descriptions of plankton-collected material and other known larvae of the genusBrachynotus.Larval features of the recently redefined Varunidae are evaluated taking into account all previous larval descriptions from this family. A combination of consistent characters can be used to distinguish varunid zoeas and megalops stages from the early life stages of all other grapsoid families.