Adult males of the Papilio bianor complex were collected in Taiwn, Ishigaki island, the main island of Okinawa, and Hyogo. The samples represent members of certain subspecies of this species complex. Cell-free extracts of isolated testes and other arrayed tissues were analyzed by SDS-PAGE. After reading of the separated bands, the proportion of non-common bands out of the total was calculated and expressed by a dissimilarity index (DI). The average DI value within the populations was 0.017. On the other hand, that among localities was 0.153. The given DI values were 0.212 between Taiwan and Ishigaki, 0.148 between Taiwan and Okinawa, 0.128 between Taiwan and Hyogo, 0.160 between Ishigaki and Okinawa, 0.116 between Ishigaki and Hyogo, and 0.155 between Okinawa and Hyogo. Papilio maackii is closely related to P. bianor complex, but it is a distinct species. When we take P. maackii as a control, the DI values between this species and each of the local populations of P. bianor complex were 0.145, 0.128, 0.102, and 0.178 for Taiwan, Ishigaki, Okinawa, and Hyogo, respectively. These values were almost equal to or rather smaller than the average value of 0.153 within the above localities of P. bianor complex. These results strongly support our previous findings that genetic divergence between local populations of P. bianor complex is on species level (KOMINAMI et al., 1987). Speciation is in progress in P. bianor complex, especially in island populations.
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