Morphometric variations among Astacus astacus populations from different regions of the Balkan Peninsula

Abstract

© 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. The morphometric variation among several populations of Astacus astacus from different regions of the Balkan Peninsula was studied based on a large set of morphometric parameters per crayfish. Differences in morphometry among populations from ten water bodies in Serbia, Slovenia and Albania were tested using a multiple discriminant analysis. Analyses included twenty-two morphometric parameters per crayfish. The most discriminant characteristics for separating males among populations were weight, head width (HEW), width of the carapace at the hind edges (CEW) and claw length (CLL), and for female populations those were abdomen length (ABL), rostrum width (ROW), total length (TL), claw length (CLL) and claw width (CLW). Our results improve the existing knowledge about the noble crayfish morphology, show clear differentiation between populations from various aquatic ecosystems and reflect geographical separation.