LIMITED MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GENETICALLY IDENTIFIED CRYPTIC SPECIES WITHIN THE LEPTASTERIAS SPECIES COMPLEX (ECHINODERMATA, ASTEROIDEA)

Sea stars of the Leptasterias species complex are common members of th e rocky intertidal community of the temperate and subarctic North Amer ican Pacific coast. Variation in 53 morphological characters was studi ed in 645 Leptasterias spp. collected at 13 intertidal locations from the Aleutian Islands to Oregon. The sea stars were also examined for r estriction-site polymorphisms in polymerase chain reaction amplified D NA representing the putative mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region and flanking sequences; these polymorphisms have recently been shown t o discriminate among Leptasterias species in the Puget Sound region an d southern Alaska. Ten mtDNA haplotypes were identified (designated A- J); five of these (D, E, H, I, and J) had not been reported in earlier surveys and were found at single locations only. Canonical discrimina nt analysis of morphological variation could partially separate nine o f the haplotypes (A-I), but there was some overlap in canonical variab le scores between most pairs of haplotypes. Morphologically, the haplo types formed three major clusters based on canonical variable scores, composed of haplotypes A/C/D, B/E/F/G/H, and I.