| Clear habitat separation between the sister species Colias alfacariensis and C. hyale is shown when occurring sympatrically. Colias hyale is found more often in moist cultivated pastures while Colias alfacariensis is more abundant in dry uncultivated habitat. Out of a total of 16 loci, no diagnostic loci were found between C. alfacariensis and C. hyale, and both species shared most major polymorphisms. Exceptions were the marked differences in allele frequencies at the HK locus and only C, hyale, but not C. alfacariensis was further invariable at the GOT2 locus, which is usually highly polymorphic in the Pieridae. Colias hyale has a significantly lower level of heterozygosity than its sister species C. alfacariensis. In Colias alfacariensis heterozygosity... |
