Broad-Scale Morphometric Diversity in the Lake Minnow Eupallasella percnurus (Cyprinidae : Pisces)

Abstract

The lake minnow Eupallasella percnurus is distributed throughout a vast area that includes most of Europe and northern Asia and displays a wide range of morphological variation, which resulted in five distinguished subspecies. There are no previous conclusive morphometric analyses of samples from different parts of the distribution area. This paper presents results of multidimensional analyses of morphometric characters of 19 widely scattered populations of the species. The results of the analyses show considerable inter-population differences. Morphometric evidence suggests that three morphologically different groups exist within the studied species. The population from the Volga river basin represents a distinct species tentatively called the ‘Volga lake minnow’. The populations from Poland; central, northern and northeastern Russia; and northern Kazakhstan form a group closely related to the nominative subspecies E. percnurus percnurus, whereas populations from southeastern Russia (including Sakhalin) and Hokkaido probably form a separate subspecies.