A new species of congrid eel, Bathycongrus villosus sp. nov., is described from the Philippines and Vanuatu. It is similar to some of the small-toothed species currently placed in Bathycongrus and to the species of Bassanago. In this paper we compare the new species to Bassanago albescens (Barnard, 1923) and to Bathycongrus parviporus Karmovskaya, 2011, which it most closely resembles. An analysis of 19 characters shows that it agrees with Bat. parviporus in 16 characters and with Bas. albescens in one. In two characters, the three species are all different. We therefore place it in Bathycongrus.