Haemoglobin polymorphism in the eels of Hispaniola

One hundred and eighty-three eels of Hispaniola were examined for the number of vertebrae and all of them were found to belong to the species Anguilla rostrata (Le Sueur 1817), as was expected. The haemoglobins of 52 individuals were examined with electrophoresis, and a polymorphism was observed. According to the explanation of SICK et al. (1967), 7.7% of the eels of Hispaniola bear the heterozygous pattern already observed in American eels, while the others bear the most common phenotype, which is identical to the only haemoglobin phenotype of the European species.