Author(s): Specziár, A., Bercsényi, M. & Müller, T.
Title: Morphological characteristics of hybrid pikeperch (Sander lucioperca female × Sander volgensis male) (Osteichthyes, Percidae)
Year: 2009
Volume: 55
Pages: 39-54.
Abstract: Sander lucioperca (Linnaeus, 1758) and S. volgensis (Gmelin, 1788) have been successfully hybridized under laboratory conditions with the common fertilization procedure, resulting fertile hybrids as viable as the parent species are. Although natural hybrids have not been reported yet, failing an effective postzygotic reproductive barrier, there is a good chance for natural hybridization can also not be excluded. In order to facilitate the recognition of hybrid Sander we studied morphological characteristics of S. lucioperca and S. volgensis compared with their laboratory bred F1 hybrids. There are some evident external features, which are generally used to distinguish the parent species, such as the presence of canine teeth in S. lucioperca, the position of the end of maxilla related to centre of eye and the different body pattern of the two species. However, in case of hybridization, these characters cannot be used for identification since even F1 hybrids cover the full transitional scale between the parent species. Out of the 38 morphometric and 10 meristic characters examined, only the number of perforated scales in lateral line did not overlap among the three genotypes. We found, however, that S. lucioperca, S. volgensis and their F1 hybrids can clearly be separated based on multivariate analysis of meristic and morphometric characters.
Keywords: morphology, Sander lucioperca, Sander volgensis, hybrid
Journal: Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Journal abbreviation:
ISSN: 1217-8837
Publisher: Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest
Editor(s): Bakonyi, G., Wei, C.-H., Mahunka, S., Horváth, Cs., Báldi, A., Yen, S.-H., Csuzdi, Cs., Nieukerken, E. J. van, Forró, L. & Wojtusiak, J.
