Morphological variability among populations of Diplodus vulgaris (Pisces; Sparidae) in the Mediterranean Sea

Morphological differentiation between Diplodus vulgaris populations from different areas of Italy (Licata and Mazara) and Greece (Alexandroupolis, Nea Peramos and Stavros) has been investigated using multivariate morphometric analysis. MANOVA presented a significant difference. All pairwise contrast among the five populations were highly significant, except between Alexandroupolis and Stavros. Two major groups, Greek and Italian populations, are morphometrically discriminated, as showed by discriminant analysis and Mahalanobis distances.