POPULATION GENETICS OF EUROPEAN ANODONTINAE (BIVALVIA: UNIONIDAE)

Abstract

Enzyme electrophoresis was used to study population genetics and molecular differentiation of European Anodontmae. The existence of two genera (Anodonta Lamarck 1799 and Pseudanodonta Bour-guignat 1876) is supported by the number of diagnostic loa (4) and Net's D > 0.463 in all cases. In western and central Europe there are two species of Anodonta, A. anatina (Linnaeus 1758) and A cygnea (Linnaeus 1758) while two other taxa of still uncertain rank were identified in the Mediterranean area. An estimated medium level of gene flow and pronounced genetic differentiation between-the taxa support this view. Data on genetic distances suggest that the diversification of European Anodontinae took place in the middle-late Pleistocene