Pattern of genetic and morphometric differentiation in Maculinea nausithous (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in the Carpathian Basin

The level of variation and the pattern of differentiation were studied in two Western Hungarian (Transdanubia: Orseg region) and two Romanian (Transylvanian Basin) populations of Maculinea nausithous (Dusky Large Blue). The aim was to provide evidence on the genetic differentiation of the Transylvanian populations, which were relegated as M. nausithous kijevensis by Rakosy et al. (2010). In order to analyse genetic variance enzyme polymorphism was studied at 17 loci. The structure of phenotypic variation was investigated by performing morphometric analyses on 11 traits of the wings. Statistical procedures were chosen so, that the results obtained for morphological and genetic data could be compared. The results of all genetic surveys supported the differentiation of the Transylvanian populations from the Western Transdanubian (Orseg) ones. Hence, genetic results supported the existence of differentiation at the subspecies level in M. nausithous. The results of the morphometric analyses, however, were not obvious. In some analyses (phenogram) no clear phenotypic differentiation was observed between the two regions. Nevertheless, the results of hierarchical analysis of variance and Multiple Discriminant Analysis indicated a significant separation of specimens from the two regions. In addition, differences were detected in the level of variation between the two regions. Both genetic and phenotypic variation was higher in the Transylvanian than in the Orseg samples.