Morphological Differentiation of Salmonines (Subfamily Salmoninae) with Emphasis on Trout Salmo spp. Stocks in Serbia and Adjacent Regions

Abstract

The multivariate analysis of the external morphology of 22 continuous charactersreveals that huchen Hucho hucho and Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus are different from alltrout stocks, whereas the Lake Ohrid belvica Salmothymus ohridanus is close to the browntrout complex. The position of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss implies greater similarityin trout-salmon morphology in relation to that of huchen and charr. The phenetic relation-ships derived on external morphology suggest similarity of the west-Danubian brown troutstock of the Black Sea basin to the brown and marble trout stocks from the Adriatic Seabasin, difference of brown trout stock from the Mlava River and similarity of brown troutstock from the Velika Morava River drainage in comparison to that of the Aegean Seabasin. Those results are initial hints for the conservation of brown trout stocks of Serbia.