POPULATION-GENETICS OF EUROPEAN ANODONTINAE (BIVALVIA, UNIONIDAE)

Enzyme electrophoresis was used to study population genetics and molec ular differentiation of European Anodontinae. The existence of two gen era (Anodonta Lamarck 1799 and Pseudanodonta Bourguignat 1876) is supp orted by the number of diagnostic loci (4) and Nei'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 o ther taxa of still uncertain rank were identified in the Mediterranean area. An estimated medium level of gene flow and pronounced genetic d ifferentiation between the taxa support this view. Data on genetic dis tances suggest that the diversification of European Anodontinae took p lace in the middle-late Pleistocene.