Honey bee morphometrics: linearity of variables with respect to body size and classification tested with European worker bees reared by varying ratios of nurse bees

Abstract

SUMMARYThe effects of nutritional stress on body size of worker honey bees and their morphometrics were examined, and morphometrics of stressed bees were compared with the morphometrics of large reference populations of European and Africanized honey bees. Workers from European queens (4 commercial queens from California plus 2 open stock queens and 2 feral queens from Louisiana) were reared with 4 ratios of nurse bees:eggs: 0.5:1,1:1, 5:1, and 100:1. Measurements of 25 morphometric variables were taken from each of 32 samples of usually ten bees per sample. Raw measurements of stressed bees were analysed separately by analysis of variance and multiple range tests. The treatments resulted in different phenotypes irrespective of the queen or her geographic origin. Workers reared at ratios of 0.5:1,1:1 and 5:1 were consistently smaller than workers reared at 100:1. Based on the size of the workers reared at 0.5:1, the initial ratio was apparently altered by the nurse bees, who probably destroyed eggs or lar...