Multivariate morphometric analysis of theApis ceranaof China

Abstract

Multivariate statistical analyses of the morphometric characters of worker bees of Apis cer- ana were collected from 188 colonies at 68 localities throughout China with a sampling resolution of 1 locality/50 000 km 2 . Principal components plots revealed one morphocluster. By introducing local labeling it become clear that bees from different localities form overlapping regional clusters: 1. bees from Jinlin, Liaoning, Beijing and northern Shanxi provinces; 2. larger bees from southern Ganshu and northern and central Sichuan; 3. smaller bees from southern Yunnan, Guangdon, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Hainan; 4. bees from the rest of China. Hierarchical cluster analysis using data for the China regional groups 1 to 4 and adjacent countries yielded a dendrogram of two main clusters. Colonies from Japan, Korea and Russia were linked with those from China regional groups 1, 2 and 4; colonies from northern Vietnam, north eastern India, Thailand and Myanmar were linked with those from China regional group 3. A. cerana populations are continuous and panmictic, and morphometric structuring is indistinct.