Anguilla rostrata
Creators
Description
Anguilla rostrata (Lesueur 1817) — American Eel
Justification: UF 183031 (1, 1120 mm TL), freshwater pond, Lower Love Estate, October 1972; USNM 106638 (1, 260 mm TL), Fairplain Stream, H. A. Beatty, 1937; additional St. Croix specimens [not examined] at ZMUC.
Distribution: Smith (1989a) WA (BD, FL, GOM, BA, GA, VI, LA, WC, nSA).
Remarks: Under the name Anguilla bostonensis, Beatty (1944:178) stated "during the winter months the larval eel, which is about two inches in length, can be seen migrating upstream in Fairplain, Concordia and Caledonia streams." In a chapter titled "The Night of the Eel," Seaman (1973) described his excitement as a boy when fishing for eels at Castle Burk pool.
This catadromous and mostly nocturnal eel has a remarkable life history, see Smith (1989a) for a detailed description. It spends the majority of its adult life in fresh water as a "yellow eel," which can last 4‒20 years. At the end of that stage it stops feeding and begins an irreversible transformation (more pronounced in males) that leads to sexual maturation. It then moves out to sea and migrates to an imprecisely known area south of Bermuda where spawning occurs.
Notes
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Related works
- Is part of
- Journal article: 10.11646/zootaxa.3803.1.1 (DOI)
- Journal article: http://zenodo.org/record/4917823 (URL)
- Journal article: http://publication.plazi.org/id/FE5AFFE80D7FFFADFFA6354AFFEDFF8C (URL)
- Journal article: http://zoobank.org/B22B642B-9987-41AB-8792-0F35D2EAD945 (URL)
Biodiversity
- Family
- Anguillidae
- Genus
- Anguilla
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Order
- Anguilliformes
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Scientific name authorship
- Lesueur
- Species
- rostrata
- Taxon rank
- species
- Taxonomic concept label
- Anguilla rostrata (Lesueur, 1817) sec. Smith-Vaniz & Jelks, 2014
References
- Smith, D. G. (1989 a) Family Anguillidae. In: Bohlke, E. B. (Ed.), Memoirs of the Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 1 (9), 25 - 47.
- Beatty, H. A. (1944) The fresh water fishes of St. Croix, V. I. The Journal of Agriculture of the University of Puerto Rico, 28 (3 / 4), 178 - 179.
- Seaman, G. A. (1973) Sticks from the hawk's nest: being the observations and recollections of an islander, particularly in the field of natural history. Prestige Press, St. Croix, 73 pp.