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5/23/2019 | 9:30 AM - 9:45 AM | MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR COMPARISONS OF ENDEMIC WESTERN CRAYFISHES TO INFORM CONSERVATION PRIORITIES | 253 AB

MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR COMPARISONS OF ENDEMIC WESTERN CRAYFISHES TO INFORM CONSERVATION PRIORITIES

Crayfishes of the subgenus Hobbsastacus endemic to the western United States have experienced severe population declines that require increased management attention. Conservation priorities for these crayfishes, however, are complicated by taxonomic ambiguities within this subgenus. For example, the Snake River pilose crayfish Pacifastacus connectens was split from the pilose crayfish Pacifastacus gambelii, first as a subspecies and subsequently as a species, on the basis of morphological characteristics. We sought here to investigate the species status of these two pilose crayfishes using both mtDNA phylogenetics and morphological comparisons. We found genetic distance between populations of P. connectens and P. gambelii to be low relative to similar studies within the related subgenus Pacifastacus, and P. connectens in particular was not monophyletic in our trees. Genetic diversity within P. gambelii populations was uniquely low relative to other crayfish species, consisting of a single COI haplotype over the vast majority of its range and between two major watersheds (upper Snake River, Bonneville Basin). Rostrum morphology, however, did reliably differentiate P. gambelii populations from P. connectens. Higher genetic distance and evolutionary diversity between P. connectens populations should be conservation priorities for populations within this subgenus.

Conservation
Genetics
Taxonomy

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Presenters/Authors

Eric Larson (), University of Illinois, erlarson@illinois.edu;