The accuracy of morphometric characteristic analysis depends on the type of the assessed traits of honey bees (Apis cerana F. and Apis mellifera L.)

Abstract

• Identification of honey bees is important for protecting them. • The lines of local and adapted honey bees of two species were breed in Korea. • It's unnecessary to identify the honey bees using random morphometric traits. • The bred lines were extracted by 9 morphometry traits out of 14. • The species were extracted by 6 and subspecies by 3 traits out of 14. Conservation of honey bees as pollinators and honey producers requires their assessment using convenient general methods. One of the most commonly used methods involves assessment of morphometric characteristics using random traits. The purpose of the study was to determine a set of morphometric characteristics for identifying the local (R, H: Apis cerana koreana ) and adapted (A, C, F: Apis melifera ligustica ; D: Apis mellifera carpathica; V: Apis mellifera ) lines of honey bees bred in Korea. We found traits with significant differences ( p < 0.001), high discriminant coefficient (>100), and range of variation (<50%). The analysis demonstrated that the widths of the abdomen, forewing, and head, and the lengths of the antenna, body, proboscis, tergites 4 and 3, and forewing can be used as the nine main morphological characteristics for distinguishing the bred lines of honey bees. Furthermore, the last two traits and the length of the head can be used for distinguishing the adapted subspecies A. m. ligustica and A. m. carpathica. Our observations can be used for improving the morphometric method for the conservation of honey bees.