Identification of Africanized and European Honey Bees: Effects of Nurse-bee Genotype and Comb Size

Abstract

Africanized or European honey bees were nursed either by Africanized or European honey bees in combs built either by Africanized or European honey bees. The resulting eight groups of adult progeny types were then measured for weight and 25 morphometric characteristics. All of the morphometric characters were used to compute a discriminant score to test the morphometrically based identification methods for Africanized and European bees. Five of the characters were also compared separately. Africanized and European progeny differed strongly in all analyses. Type of nurse bee had small and nonsignificant effects on all characteristics except bee weight. Type of comb had significant effects: European comb resulted in larger progeny and Africanized comb resulted in smaller progeny. None of these independent variables interacted, although comb type and nurse bee type showed consistent additive effects. In spite of these findings, morphometrically based identification accurately discriminated Africanized and European bees.