Morphological and genetic differentiation of bank voles, Clethrionomys glareolus, from the Eastern Alps

Variation of external and skull measurements, pelage colour and non-metric traits of 15 geographic samples of Austrian bank, voles, Clethrionomys glar eolus, was studied with univariate and multivariate statistical methods. Th e results were compared with the results of allozyme analysis of four, and studies of mitochondrial DNA sequences (d-loop and cyt b gene) of five geog raphic samples. Morpho- and colourimetric, epigenetic and electrophoretic m ethods yielded a differentiation into an eastern and western group, which w as feebly backed by results obtained by cyt b sequencing. Although differen t approaches did not suggest exactly the same grouping of samples, the resu lts seem to be robust enough to demonstrate, that the Eastern Alps were col onized in postglacial times by two different phylogenetic lineages (nageri from the west, glareolus or istericus from the east) that probably had spli t during the Wurm glaciation.