Taxonomic status of the Mediterranean terrestrial isopod Porcellio lamellatus Budde-Lund 1885 as inferred from genetic and morphological differentation (Crustacea, Isopoda, Oniscidea)

The differentiation of numerous populations of Porcellio lamellatus Budde-Lund, 1885 (Isopoda,Oniscidea) in Sicily, Sicily-surrounding islands, Tunisia, and Portugal was studied from a morphologicalpoint of view as well as by using two molecular approaches: Multi-Locus Enzyme Electrophoresis(MLEE) and Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis, in order to assessthe status of some taxa attributed to Porcellio lamellatus.The morphological study showed that the characters used to define the various taxa in theliterature are often found within the same population, which also appeared to include intermediateforms.The analysis of both the DNA polymorphisms and the electrophoretic mobility of the proteinsdid not produce genetically significant distances between the various populations studied, not evenamong those that have extreme variations in morphological characters.