New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Electrophoretic and meristlc separation of blue maomao and sweep

P. J. Smith

B. A. Wood

P. G. Benson

Fisheries Research Division, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, P.O. Box 19062, Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract Fourteen proteins and 12 morphometric characters were examined in specimens of blue maomao and sweep to resolve the question: Are they one or two species? Specimens were fixed for the same alleles at 12 protein loci and shared alleles at 4 polymorphic loci. At a further polymorphic locus they differed in allele frequency and at three loci they did not share alleles. A genetic distance of 0.209 was found between blue maomao and sweep suggesting that they diverged about 1 million years ago. One meristic character showed a difference between specimens.

On the basis of the electrophoretic data and on gill raker counts it is considered that blue maomao and sweep are two separate species. In view of reported differences from Australian specimens the allocation of scientific names at least to sweep remains uncertain.

New Zealand journal of Marine & Freshwater Research.. 1979 13 (4); 549-551
Received 18 April 1979; revision received 25 June 1979 Fisheries Research. Division Publication 375

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (318K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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