Microgeographic, Genetic and Morphological-Differentiation of Fresh-Water Snails - the Hydrobiidae of Wilson Promontory, Victoria, South-Eastern Australia

Abstract

Population differentiation and speciation in freshwater snails in a small geographic area were investigated in a study of the morphology and genetics of 75 populations of hydrobiid snails from streams on Wilsons Promontory, Victoria, Australia. At least four genetically definable species occur in sympatry. One (Fluvidona recta sp. nov.) is genetically isolated from the others and the other three (of which only F: turbata sp. nov. is named) appear to be closely related and distinguished by a nearly fixed allozyme (MPI) difference. Heterozygote frequencies for the diagnostic Mpi locus fall well below Hardy-Weinberg expectations in zones of sympatry. There is significant population subdivision within at least two of the genetic species, but as the partitions are allopatric they are not categorised taxonomically. The situation may be explained by the divergence of upland and lowland populations when sea levels fell during the Pleistocene with subsequent secondary contact and low levels of hybridisation in the contact zones. Generally, there is very low gene flow between even closely adjacent populations and extremely low flow between different catchments, F-ST between populations within the same tributary ranging from 0.02 to 0.14 and within adjacent tributaries of the same catchment ranging from 0.03 to 0.59. Some correlations between allozyme data and measured environmental variables were observed but none of these were consistent over all taxa. Size (shell length) appears to be influenced by environment, but shell shape and the length of the opercular smear are more correlated with genetic patterns. A notable lack of correlation between anatomy and genetic groupings was found, although there was some with shell and opercular morphology. Two additional species (F: gippslandica, sp. nov. and F: foris, sp. nov.) from areas adjacent to the Promontory are used as outgroups.