Abstract: The genetic diversity of four geographical populations of Colaphellus bowringi Baly was analyzed by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Sixty-five amplified loci and 53 polymorphic loci were obtained using 11 primers selected from 80 random primers. The Nei’s genetic diversity and Shannon genetic diversity indexes of the 4 populations were 0.1049-0.2061 and 0.1641-0.3167, respectively. The results showed the genetic diversity of the assayed populations was high, of which Tai’an population of Shandong (SDT) has the highest level of the genetic diversity, while Longnan population of Jiangxi (JXL) has the lowest. The genetic distances ranged from 0.0636 (between Longnan population of Jiangxi and Xiushui population of Jiangxi) to 0.3200 (between Longnan population of Jiangxi and Harbin population) among the 4 populations, indicating that the genetic distances among C. bowringi populations match with their geographical distances. The results suggest that the genetic distance might be correlated with their biological similarity.

Key words: Colaphellus bowringi, geographical populations, genetic diversity, genetic distance, RAPD