Comparative electrophoretic examination of the two European species of angler-fish (Lophiidae): Lophius piscatorius (L.) and Lophius budegassa (Spinola) and assessment of their genetic relationship

1. A multilocus electrophoretic examination of the genetic relationships between the two European species of angler-fish was carried out using starch gel electrophoresis. 2. At 4 gene loci fixation for different alleles separated Lophius piscatorius and L. budegassa while at an additional 5 loci, frequencies of shared alleles were significantly heterogeneous. 3. A mean genetic distance of I = 0.771 was calculated, corresponding to a mean genetic distance of D = 0.260 between these species. 4. This research identifies 7 polymorphic loci in L. piscatorius and 5 in L. budegassa which will potentially serve as genetic markers for examination of population structure.