Eels in Southern Africa

Abstract

SPONSORED by the South African Council for Industrial and Scientific Research, this Department, under the direction of Prof. J. L. B. Smith, is undertaking the study of the life-history of the freshwater eels of the western Indian Ocean. Most authorities have hitherto held that only one species of freshwater eel, namely, Anguilla mossambica Peters, occurs in South Africa. Ege¹ recorded a specimen of Anguilla marmorata Quoy and Gaimard, from the Buffalo River, Eastern Cape (27° 30′ E., 32° 57′ S.), but as this was the only one from the continent of Africa its validity has been queried. However, among the eels in this Department and of the Kaffrarian Museum, Kingwilliamstown, we have found six, all females, with pleated gonads full of ova, which are unquestionably Anguilla marmorata Quoy and Gaimard. Three of these, 85–135 cm. in length, are from the Keiskama River (27° 13′ E., 33° 03′ S.) (near the Buffalo), and the remainder, 73–108 cm. in length, from the confluence of the Sabi and Lundi Rivers in Southern Rhodesia (32° 25′ E., 21° 10′ S.). In both cases the habitats are mature rivers below the 1,000-ft. contour.