Morphological characterization of the Apis mellifera drones in the Southern Urals

Abstract

The results of the morphological characterization of Apis mellifera drones are presented in order to identify the biopotential of the “clean” native population in bee yards in 12 regions of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The presence of Is, I, O morphotypes – dark and gray in drones, is established. The O morphotype (dark) corresponds to the Central Russian subspecies, and the drones characterized by the O color (gray) can be related to the subspecies with a gray color of abdominal terga. The analysis of morphometric features in drones is identified as Apis mellifera mellifera allowed to distinguish the following characteristics: O (dark) morphotype with brown (coffee hue) or black hairs color on the abdomen; proboscis length (average) – 3.81 ± 0.08 … 3.97 ± 0.03 mm, cubital index – 1.36 ± 0.07 … 1.45 ± 0.09, wing length (front right) – 11.98 ± 0.49…12.08 ± 0.45 mm, wing width (front right) – 3.72 ± 0.21 … 3.92 ± 0.23 mm, tergite length (third) – 2.90 ± 0.12 … 3.51 ± 0.01 mm, tergite width (third) – 6.40 ± 0.02 … 6.44 ± 0.04 mm, sternite length (third) – 2.62 ± 0.03 … 2.66 ± 0.05 mm, sternite width (third) – 4.52 ± 0.10 … 4.62 ± 0.07 mm, tarsal index – 49.59 ± 0.89 … 52.15 ± 1.93%.