Morphological variation of Rana latastei (Boulenger, 1879) across the species' geographic range

Morphometric variation of 16 characters were studied in 9 samples of Rana latastei from populations distributed across part of the geographical range, from Piedmont (Italy) to Slovenia and Croatia. Significant differences in body size were found between the different populations, but we did not found any geographic or climatic patterns and body size variation. Multivariate analysis of the differences in body shape among groups showed a high degree of intraspecific morphometric variation. The effect of body size on the percentage of correct classification to the respective populations in the Discriminant analysis resulted negligible. We found a correlation between morphometric and geographic distances among populations: this result suggest that the body shape differences in R.. latastei result from the genetic isolation correlated with the geographical distance between populations.