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The Taxonomic Status of Littorina Neglecta: A Comment to Grahame, Mill, Double and Hull

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

K. Johannesson  and
B. Johannesson
K. Johannesson
Affiliation:
Tjärnö Marine Biological Laboratory, S-452 96 Strömstad, Sweden
B. Johannesson
Affiliation:
Tjärnö Marine Biological Laboratory, S-452 96 Strömstad, Sweden
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Extract

In a short communication Grahame et al. (1992) argue against our finding that Littorina neglecta Bean is an ecotype of Littorina saxatilis (Olivi) rather than a separate species (Johannesson & Johannesson, 1990b). Unfortunately, Grahame et al. (1992) have miss-represented our earlier paper, and we feel the need to refute their arguments.

In populations from north-western Europe we studied morphological characters used to separate Littorina neglecta from L. saxatilis. We found that intermediate shapes were common and, furthermore, we found no close coupling among characters used to define L. neglecta (Johannesson & Johannesson, 1990a). We further analysed the genetic variation in five strongly polymorphic allozyme loci. In four loci we found a pattern that indicated that L. neglecta is not reproductively isolated from L. saxatilis. In the fifth locus, Aat-1, we found consistent differences between populations of L. neglecta (from the low shore) and L. saxatilis (from the high shore). Similar differences were observed between low and high shore populations in Sweden where, however, no snails of neglecta-type were present.

Type
Short Communications
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 249
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1993

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References

Grahame, J., Mill, P.J., Double, M. & Hull, S.L., 1992. Patterns of variation in Aat-1 allele frequencies in rough periwinkles (Littorina) suggest similar selection regimes rather than conspecificity. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 72, 499–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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