GENETIC-VARIABILITY AND TAXONOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT 6 SPECIES OFEUROPEAN CARDUELINE FINCHES (AVES, PASSERIFORMES)

Electrophoretic patterns of seven enzyme systems and two nonenzymatic proteins, albumin and haemoglobin, representing 13 loci, have been inv estigated in six species oi cardueline finches with Palearctic distrib ution. A new locus, SOD-3, has been characterized in this subfamily. T he two nonenzymatic proteins turned out to be the best genetic markers . From the analysis of the genetic distances it emerges chat the mean values between species are higher than those reported for other groups of birds. However, the same results were obtained for other species o f the same subfamily native to North America. In both cases this resul t is probably due to a classification that disagrees with the real car dueline phylogeny. In the present study, the attribution of the Greenf inch to the genus Carduelis raises the mean value of distance between species. (C) 1991 Elsevier Science Inc.