Morphometric variability of wild honey bees of the mountain forest zone of Crimea as a material for breeding

T O Bykova,I S Emirsinov,A S Krivozubov,V N Sattarov,A V Ivashov,A F Safonkin,T A Triseleva,A M Soloviev,V Breskich,Y Dreizis,A Zheltenkov

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/202022404014

T O Bykova, I S Emirsinov + Show 9 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202022404014

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Abstract

The results of studies of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) from two points are presented: from a bee colony captured near the Tankovoye village (this swarm was found by a local resident an entrepreneur, the owner of the private nursery “Orekhovod – practitioner” I.S. Emirsinov) and bees captured in the vicinity of Sugut-Oba mountain (Burus) from a swarm captured about 25 km to the southeast of Belogorsk and west of the Feodosia height. Measurements of morphometric features were carried out using the method of V.V. Alpatov (1948), the method of F. Ruttner (2006) was used to identify the morphotypes and the width of the hairline of worker bees. The phenotypic homogeneity of bee colonies from the Tankovoye village was revealed by morphotypes and the width of the hairline on the abdomen of worker bees in the presence of a variety of classical morphometric characters. At the same time, one phenotype characterized by morphotype O (light brown coloration of chitinous integuments on the abdomen) and a narrow hairline f was registered. The presence of this phenotype characterizes the compliance with the breed standards of Apis mellifera caucasica (gray mountain Caucasian), Apis mellifera carpatica (Carpathian) or Apis mellifera carnica (Carniolan), i.e. breeds with a gray abdomen. Molecular genetic analysis of the mtDNA COI site showed the homogeneity of the sample of wild bees captured near the Tankovoye village and their proximity to the Vuchkovskaya line of the Carpathian breed.

Highlights

Various studies show that the use of local populations of honey bees provides a higher chance of survival, while the use of non-locally adapted honey bees leads to high colony losses, as has been observed recently in many regions of Europe [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The minimum value of the limit did not correspond to the accepted breed standards
The performed morphometric analysis allows indicating the discrepancy between bees in samples from two geographic points and officially recognized breed standards

Summary

Introduction

Various studies show that the use of local populations of honey bees provides a higher chance of survival, while the use of non-locally adapted honey bees leads to high colony losses, as has been observed recently in many regions of Europe [1,2,3,4,5,6]. From a chronological point of view, studies related to the search for aboriginal bees belong to the Department of Ecology and Zoology of the V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University. From the archival materials of the department it is known that in 1997 point studies were carried out on the territory of the Mountain Crimea, and at the same time, three families of aboriginal bees were registered in the forest [14]. It is possible that it is in the remote mountain-forest regions of Crimea, relatively isolated from the main gene flows of imported bee breeds, that unique genotypes and, phenotypes that provide adaptations to survival in Crimean conditions have formed over the past 30-40 years. In view of the above, it is of interest to identify the reserves of bee colonies of the aboriginal group and determine their morphometric and genetic characteristics

Materials and methods of research

Results and their discussion

Conclusions