REDESCRIPTION OF PARTIALLY KNOWN GAMMARUS PAVLOVICI S. KARAMAN, 1929 (FAMILY GAMMARIDAE) AND ITS VARIABILITY (CONTRIBUTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE AMPHIPODA 311)

The epigean freshwater species Gammarus pavlovici S. Karaman, 1929 (Amphipoda: Gammaridae) is redescribed from type-locality, Rašće springs near Skoplje (North Macedonia). This species has been only partially described and for long time considered as synonym of Gammarus balcanicus Schäferna, 1922 by numerous authors (G. Karaman, 1977; Barnard Barnard, 1983, etc.).As Gammarus pavlovici was one of the earliest described taxa affiliated to G. balcanicus, the recognition of morphological and taxonomical characters of this species is notably to show the morpho-taxonomical relation of this species regarding Gammarus balcanicus from type-locality (Kolašin, Montenegro). Variability of some morphological characters within the type-locality population of G. pavlovici is presented and some recent problems within the molecular/genetic and classic morphological approach to the recognition of single taxa are discussed.