Starch gel electrophoresis was used to study patterns of genetic variation within and among seven species of North American Chauliognathus. All species displayed levels of genetic variation lower than are usually found in insects. Geographic variation in allele frequencies within a species appeared to be limited, whereas differentiation among species was substantial. The differences among species often involved loci monomorphic within populations. Despite the abrupt genetic discontinuities separating species, the sharing by five species of a polymorphism at the PGI locus suggests that variation at PGI might be maintained by some form of diversifying selection. Finally, phylogenetic trees constructed from electrophoretic evidence for the seven species are consistent with phylogenies based on morphology and ecology.
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Howard et al. (1990) studied this question.