**5.3 Phylogenetic cladistics**

76 Zoology

the seven populations sampled from Yunnan could be divided into two groups, hereafter designated as the SPG, the southwestern population group containing populations from Ruili, Wanding, and Lianghe, and the RPG, the remaining population group containing populations from Pu'er, Huaning, Stone Forest, and Yongsheng. The grouping result was then supported by the multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis (Fig. 4). Notably, both the K2P distances and the MDS analysis showed a close relationship between the population from Zhejiang and all populations from the SPG, however, the relationship between the population from Hubei and any population from both the SPG and the RPG was much

**Site PE RL WD HN SF LH YS ZJ HB**  PE 0.0037 0.0035 0.0012 0.0015 0.0028 0.0013 0.0037 0.0040 RL 0.0084 0.0007 0.0036 0.0040 0.0012 0.0034 0.0008 0.0024 WD 0.0084 0.0018 0.0035 0.0038 0.0012 0.0032 0.0009 0.0024 HN 0.0020 0.0090 0.0090 0.0013 0.0029 0.0012 0.0037 0.0040 SF 0.0022 0.0101 0.0101 0.0022 0.0032 0.0020 0.0040 0.0042 LH 0.0064 0.0027 0.0031 0.0071 0.0081 0.0026 0.0013 0.0025 YS 0.0014 0.0070 0.0070 0.0020 0.0031 0.0053 0.0034 0.0038 ZJ 0.0093 0.0021 0.0026 0.0098 0.0109 0.0035 0.0079 0.0027

HB 0.0122 0.0070 0.0077 0.0123 0.0132 0.0084 0.0107 0.0086

errors (above diagonal) of between populations of *M. alternatus*. Population codes

correspond to those in Fig. 2. Data source: Fu et al. (2010).

those in Fig. 2. After Fu et al. (2010).

Table 2. Matrix of the Kimura two-parameter (K2P) distance (below diagonal) and standard

Fig. 4. The multidimensional scaling (MDS) plots of *M. alternatus* populations at different locations based on Kimura two-parameter (K2P) distances. SPG, the southwestern

population group; RPG, the remaining population group. Population codes correspond to

greater (Table 2; Fig. 4).

The neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic tree based on the K2P distance of the 18 haplotypes resolved three major clades designated from A to C (Fig. 5). Clade A contained six populations from Yunnan, with four from northern, central, and southern portion, and only one sample from Wanding, southwestern portion was included. Clade B contained the three populations from southwestern Yunnan and the population from Zhejiang, eastern China. However, no sample from other portions of Yunnan grouped in clade B. Clade C only contained the population from Hubei, central China. The topological structure of the NJ phylogenetic tree suggests that the seven populations consisted of two groups, the RPG and the SPG, regardless of the connection between them by a few samples from Wanding and Lianghe. It also suggested that the genetic profile of the population from Hubei is different from the remaining ones involved in the research.

Fig. 5. The neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic tree of the 18 haplotypes of *M. alternatus*, numbers above the branches represent the bootstrap values (> 50). After Fu et al. (2010).
