Biochemical systematics and patterns of genetic divergence between the Troglophilus species of Crete and Rhodos (Orthoptera, Rhaphidophoridae ).

Four populations of Troglophilus spinulosus from Crete, one population of T. lagoi from Rhodos and one population of Dolichopoda paraskevi from Crete have been studied for genetic variation at 19 enzymatic loci by electrophoresis. Three different levels of genetic divergence emerged: mean Nei's genetic distance was 0.025 among T spinulosus populations, 0.347 between T spinulosus and T lagoi and 0.837-0.918 between D. paraskevi-T spinulosus and D. paraskevi-T lagoi respectively. Relationships among T spinulosus populations were studied by Principal Component Analysis in order to clarify their debated taxonomic position; relationships among all study populations were assessed by two different methods of tree reconstruction, Maximum Likelihood and Neighbor-Joining. The low degree of genetic differentiation among T spinulosus populations and the different data analyses all indicate that this is the only Troglophilus species of Crete.