Phylogenetic position of white-clawed crayfish from the east Adriatic coast

The white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes (Lereboullet)) is a native European freshwater crayfish inhabiting Croatian freshwater habitats. It is naturally distributed in the Adriatic Sea drainage, while in Europe it is found in its southern and western parts, including British Isles. It has been frequently studied and it presents a taxon that is highly structured, so the latest suggestion is to consider A. pallipes as a species complex. The number of populations is continuously diminishing so it is treated as endangered species and it protected by Croatian and international laws. The purpose of this research was to study the phylogenetic position of Croatian populations in comparison to already studied populations of this species in the rest of Europe utilizing broad range of phylogentic methods on two mitochondrial genetic markers. Results of phylogenetic analysis are discussed in details.