Analysis of species lineages of some Australian thiarids (Thiaridae, Prosobranchia, Gastropoda) using the evolutionary species concept

Abstract

The evolutionary species definition is applied to 16 populations of Australian thiarids through the numerical analysis of an electrophoretic data set. Thirteen populations were assigned to a single lineage on the basis of their common evolutionary past and their evolutionary disjunction from the remaining three populations. Members of this lineage were referred to the species Thiara balonnensis (Conrad, 1850). The relationships of the other three populations, which were tentatively assigned to Thiara denisoniensis (Brot, 1877), were uncertain apart from being outside this lineage.