INTERNATIONAL STUDY ON ARTEMIA .57. MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERS SUGGEST CONSPECIFICITY OF ALL BISEXUAL EUROPEAN AND NORTH-AFRICAN ARTEMIA POPULATIONS

A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study of bisexual Artemia populat ions revealed that populations representing the species A. franciscana , A. persimilis, A. urmiana, A. sinica and a recently described specie s from Kazakhstan have a pair of spine-like outgrowths at the basal pa rts of their penes, whereas populations from southern Europe and North Africa (i.e. Mediterranean populations) lack these spine-like outgrow ths. Allozyme and DNA polymorphisms, detected by allozyme starch gel e lectrophoresis and AFLP fingerprinting, respectively, suggested conspe cificity of the studied populations from the broader Mediterranean bas in. Male specimens from the collection of the Natural History Museum o f London (UK) of the extinct A. salina population from Lymington lack spine-like outgrowths at the basal parts of the penes. This finding, b ased on a taxonomic character which is quite reliable, suggests conspe cificity of A. salina from Lymington and the present bisexual Artemia populations from the Mediterranean basin, grouped under the binomen A. tunisiana.