The morphological variability of the Polish carmine scale, Porphyrophora polonica (L.) (Homoptera, Coccinea, Margarodidae)

Porphyrophora polonica inhabits the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eurasia. The research goal is assessing the morphological variability within P. polonica, and similarity with close relative P. ussuriensis. 29 populations were studied. For analysis, specimens were combined to 7 areas: Poland, Ukraine, Altai, Saur, Melkosopochnik, Tarbagatay, and Dzhungaria as well as to 3 host-plants: Dianthus, Potentilla, and Potentilla bifurca. Indices of intrapopulation diversity, frequency of rare morphs, and similarity among populations, as suggested by Zhivotovskiy (1981) were used in analysis. 15 morphological characters were analyzed. Porphyrophora polonica is a very polymorphous species. The divergence of populations are going in two ways: 1) scale up the portion of rare morphs and redistribution of dominated morphs, 2) formation and increasing the portion of unique morphs. The boundary populations show the highest divergence. Close species P. altaiensis and P. ussuriensis were the boundary populations of P. polonica in the past. The species structure includes 2 kinds of populations: “mother” and “filial”. The “mother” population includes the total number of rare and dominated morphs in each region; there are several such populations in whole distribution area. These “mother” populations are a base for “filial” populations in each area. The “filial” populations are distributed around “mother” and have only some part of morphs presented in “mother” population. The penetration into new areas and ecological niche are provided by “filial” populations, it is attended by creation of new morphs. The “mother” population usually answers on environmental challenge by increasing the portion of favorable morphs from the rich morphological “arsenal”. The list of determined “mother” populations of P. polonica is shown in analyze of species variability.