THE USE OF PROTEIN ELECTROPHORESIS FOR DETERMINING SPECIES BOUNDARIESIN AMPHIPODS

The use of protein electrophoretic data for determining species bounda ries in amphipods is addressed. Analysis of published literature on ge netic differentiation in amphipods showed that pairs of allopatric pop ulations which have genetic identities (I) above a value of 0.85 proba bly represent intraspecific populations, whereas pairs of populations which have genetic identities below about 0.45 probably represent diff erent species. It was recommended that if I values fall between 0.45 a nd 0.85, additional factors such as evidence of a lack of gene flow be tween the populations, and concordant morphological variation should b e considered.