New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts

---

Genetic and cytogenetic diversity in Hochstetter's frog, Leiopelma hochstetteri, and its importance for conservation management

DAVID M. GREEN

Redpath Museum
McGill University
859 Sherbrooke St W
Montreal, Quebec H3A 2K6, Canada

Abstract  Hochstetter's frog, Leiopelma hochstetteri, is now reduced to a series of isolated populations of variable size and extent. Although the species is not considered endangered, some of these isolates may be threatened or vulnerable. In a genetically and geographically discontinuous species like L. hochstetteri, every population may be an important component of total biogeographic diversity, since each isolate may represent an emergent historical entity. Variation in supernumerary chromosome number between populations and, particularly, the morphology of the sex chromosome, in conjunction with isozyme evidence, enable the identification of important subdivisions within L. hochstetteri. The population on Great Barrier Island is cytogenetically distinct since its members have no univalent, sex-specific chromosome such as is present in all females from the North Island. Frogs from Mt Ranginui in the Rangitoto Range are the most chromosomally and biochemically distinctive of the North Island populations. Identification of geographic subdivisions in Hochstetter's frog indicates that conservation management practice should focus upon populations rather than the species as a whole.

Keywords  Leiopelma hochstetteri; Leiopelmatidae; Anura; diversity; management units; populations; isozymes; chromosomes

New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 1994, Vol. 21: 417-424

0301-4223/2104-0417 $2.50/0   (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 1994

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (402K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

---

This year's abstracts | Journal home page | All abstracts | Publishing home page