| Publication Type: | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication: | 1994 |
| Authors: | P. P. Fong, Garthwaite R. L. |
| Journal: | Marine Biology. |
| Volume: | 118 |
| Pagination: | 463 |
| Abstract: | Three morphologically similar species of the polychaete genus Hediste [H. limnicola (Johnson, 1901), H. diversicolor (O. E M/iller, 1776), and H. japonica (Izuka, 1908)] have been described, respectively, from the west coast of North America, Europe, and Japan. Although these taxa are geographically isolated by oceans, the morphological criteria by which they can be separated are sufficiently variable as to make identification difficult. We have compared these three taxa biochemically using ten allozyme loci and have found that they are genetically distinct and constitute valid species. H. japonica (collected in June 1990 from Kyushu, Japan) appears more closely related to H. limnicola (collected in July 1989 from two sites in California and two in Oregon, USA) than it is to H. diversicolor (collected in October- November 1989 from the Weser estuary and the Jadebusen in Germany). H. limnicola has been recognized previously as a self-fertilizing hermaphrodite, but it is quite polymorphic in the four populations examined and we suggest that some cross-fertilization must occur in the field. Marked allele frequency differences between the two H. diversicolor populations examined, which were separated by only about 30 km, suggested that there was restricted gene flow between populations, or that there had been strong short-term selection. |