The North Mediterranean Barbus lineage: phylogenetic hypotheses and taxonomic implications based on allozyme data

Abstract

On the basis of distinct ecological and morphological characters, the European Barbus taxa have been clustered in two groups: a fluvio‐lacustrine and a rheophilic or strictly riverine one. These two groups (or ecophenotypes) were recognized in different parts of Europe, and formed either a species assemblage (Barbus barbus group) or a polytypic species (Barbus meridionalis). The hypothesis was that species of the same group belong to the same phylogenetic lineage (clade) and are the result of the same transcontinental colonization event. The analysis, using allozyme markers, of 10 taxa of the genus Barbus from France, Italy, Greece, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, showed that the taxa thought to belong to the fluvio‐lacustrine and the rheophilic groups are not monophyletic. The results suggest that probably in each sub‐region, the founding taxon has diverged independently to form species of two different ecophenotypes, one occupying the upstream rivers and the other the lowland rivers. Accordingly, Barbus species groups represent clusters of morphologically convergent taxa living in equivalent biotopes.