Structure and dynamics of a narrow hybrid zone between geocrinia laevis and g. Victoriana (anura: leptodactylidae) in south-eastern australia

SUMMARY A transect was established across the hybrid zone between _Geocrinia laevis_ and _G. victoriana_ near its southern (coastal) limit. Three diagnostic components of the phenotype,

breeding-call structure and two muscle protein systems, were used to analyse the interaction between these parapatric, morphologically-similar species. The zone, based on breeding-call

structure, is narrow (9-30 km), with most of the replacement occurring over 2 km. Contact samples consist of putative parental individuals and recombination products, so that this section of

the zone may be described as an overlap with hybridisation. This contrasts with an earlier analysis of a transect near the northern (inland) limit of the zone, where there is a narrow

intergradation with hybrids predominating in the replacement populations. In the southern transect, the two muscle protein systems have much broader zones of replacement than that for

breeding calls (minimum widths of 33 and 72 km). The muscle protein zones are in different geographic positions from each other, and there is little overlap with the zone based on breeding

calls. The patterns of replacement of the three characters in these species appear to be independent of one another, and emphasise the complex nature of hybrid zones. SIMILAR CONTENT BEING

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Gartside, Peter Harrison and Peter Robertson for assistance with field work and are grateful to Dr C. M. Bull, Dr G. M. Hewitt and Dr D. D. Shaw for their constructive comments on the

manuscript. This research was supported by A.R.G.C. grants D66/16172 and D17715598 and funds from the University of Melbourne standing research vote. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND

AFFILIATIONS * Department of Genetics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3052, Victoria, Australia D F Gartside * Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3052, Victoria,

Australia M J Littlejohn & G F Watson Authors * D F Gartside View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * M J Littlejohn View author

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PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Gartside, D., Littlejohn, M. & Watson, G. Structure and dynamics of a narrow hybrid zone between _Geocrinia

laevis_ and G. _Victoriana_ (Anura: Leptodactylidae) in South-Eastern Australia. _Heredity_ 43, 165–177 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1979.72 Download citation * Received: 02 May 1979

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