Mesobuthus gibbosus (Scorpiones: Buthidae) on the island of Rhodes — hybridization between Ulysses’ stowaways and native scorpions?

Allozyme data suggest that the Rhodes population of Mesobuthus gibbosus is a hybrid population of recent origin. Namely, it is a mixture between an autochthonous population and an artificially introduced population probably from the Greek mainland. All samples were mainly composed of F1 hybrid genotypes and genotypes either fixed for autochthonous or introduced alleles. Back-cross hybrid genotypes were very rare. Mitochondrial DNA analysis, in contrast, revealed only one group of closely related haplotypes that are unique for the Rhodes populations, thus suggesting asymmetric introgression of the two marker classes.