Abstract
Morphological features of Indian honey bee Apis cerana indica (F.) in Tamil Nadu were studied using multivariate analysis for 35 quantitative characters. These characters statistically dispersed significantly (p<0.05) in the localities explore. High inter colonial variances at three regions were found associated with major geographical features. A cluster analysis using six characters grouped the bees of 60 colonies from 29 locations into 4 morphoclusters, first Principal Component explained 26.63% of the total variance in morphometrics. Higher factor loadings were found with proboscis length and 6th sternite length. The second Principal Component explained 48.81% and had higher factor loadings with body length and hind wing length followed by basitarsus width and wing angle 420 and 69.18% in discriminating various populations. The results showed a high degree of variations, which got correlated with geographical parameters. Bees from the high altitude areas were clearly larger and darker compared to those from lowaltitude.
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