Biogeography in a continental island: population structure of the relict endemic centipede Craterostigmus tasmanianus (Chilopoda, Craterostigmomorpha) in Tasmania using 16S rRNA and COI

We used 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequence data to investigate the population structure in the centipede Craterostigmus tasmanianus Pocock, 1902 (Chilopoda: Craterostigmomorpha: Craterostigmidae) and to look for possible barriers to gene flow on the island of Tasmania, where C. tasmanianus is a widespread endemic. We first confirmed a molecular diagnostic character in 28S rRNA separating Tasmanian Craterostigmus from its sister species Craterostigmus crabilli (Edgecombe and Giribet 2008) in New Zealand and found no shared polymorphism in this marker for the 2 species. In Tasmania, analysis of molecular variance analysis showed little variation at the 16S rRNA and COI loci within populations (6% and 13%, respectively), but substantial variation (56% and 48%, respectively) among populations divided geographically into groups. We found no clear evidence of isolation by distance using a Mantel test. Bayesian clustering and gene network analysis both g...