Electrophoretic contributions to the systematics of the freshwater crayfish genus Engaeus Erichson (Decapoda : Parastacidae)

Abstract

As part of an examination into the systematics of the freshwater crayfish genus Engaeus, an electrophoretic evaluation of specimens from a large number of collecting sites has been undertaken. From a total of 76 sample sets, a minimum of 30 distinct biological species have been delineated. Strong evidence from sites of both sympatry and allopatry suggests some further delineations of species but these must await additional discriminatory information. Sympatric species were detected on 11 separate occasions. In each case, fixed allelic differences were found, indicating an absence of interbreeding between each sympatric pair. Allopatric species were delineated where genetic differences between populations exceeded a threshold level determined from observed genetic differences between sympatric Engaeus species and between other (mainly decapod) species in the literature.

The results of this analysis have confirmed low levels of heterozygosity in Engaeus species. Frequent isoIation of small populations of Engaeus species, and consequent loss of allelic variation, is suggested as a possible cause of these low levels.

Some species have shown variation of allelic frequencies over their geographical range and, in some cases, this variation could be interpreted as showing clinal properties.

Finally, the electrophoretic data have been interpreted to produce some information regarding the phylogenetic affinities of delineated species. Several groups of species were found which shared closer intra-group relationships than they did to the other species of Engaeus.