Morphometric comparison of the narrow-clawed crayfish Pontastacus leptodactylus populations from the western part of the Polesye Region

Abstract

Taxonomical status of the narrow-clawed crayfish species complex is remained as unclear and it is still the subject of discussion. Despite many ambiguities, uniform data related to morphological diversity are scare. Therefore, the main aim was to compare populations from the same type of waterbody and different drainage (Baltic and Black Sea) from the Polesye region with multivariate statistics in order to morphological diversity verification. The result indicates that variability of studied populations is expressed especially in abdomen and cephalothorax parameters which is comparable to other works on morphometry of the European freshwater crayfish species. Some studies showed differences on morphology have been also confirmed at the genetic level. The information obtained in this study indicates that genetic analyses are necessary for understanding the diversity of this species.