GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN POPULATIONS OF THE BEETLE CARABUS HEMPRICHI FROM MICROCLIMATICALLY OPPOSING SLOPES OF “EVOLUTION CANYON": A MEDITERRANEAN MICROSITE, MOUNT CARMEL, ISRAEL

ABSTRACT

Differences in genetic diversity were tested in ground beetles, Carabus hemprichi (Coleoptera, Carabidae), from microclimatically opposite slopes at a Mediterranean microsite, “Evolution Canyon” at Lower Nahal Oren, Mount Carmel, Israel. We predicted that the population on the south-facing slope (SF) has been selected for higher genetic diversity, due to a spatiotemporally wider ecological microclimatic niche. Twenty individuals from SF, 16 from the north-facing slope (NF), and 12 from the valley bottom were tested for variation in 22 putative allozymic loci. Numbers of alleles per locus 64), allelic polymorphism (P), observed heterozygosity (H), and gene diversity (H_e ) were higher on SF as expected; the SF/NF ratios being: A = 2.2/2.0, P = 0.91/0.82, H = 0.179/0.163, and H_e = 0.399/0.369. Although the differences were not statistically significant in multilocus comparison, we found significant deviations from 0 in genetic distance between the slopes in four loci.