The Importance of Morphometric Geometry on Discrimination of Carniolan (Apis mellifera carnica) and Caucasian (A. m. caucasica) Honey Bee Subspecies and in Determining Their Relationship to Thrace Region Bee Genotype

Abstract

The honey bee races Apis mellifera carnica Pollman and A. m. caucasica Gorbachev are both found in Turkey, A. m. carnica primarily in Thrace (European Turkey) and A. m. caucasica primarily in north-eastern Anatolia (Asia Minor). Standard measures of forewing vein angles were investigated for their utility in discriminating between these two races and in identifying bees of unknown origin. A total of 76 honey bee samples was used, 61 of which were taken from north-eastern Anatolia (NEA), 8 from Thrace region (TR) and 7 from a private beekeeper who imported queens of A. m. carnica (IQC) from abroad. In each sample, 11 forewing vein angles used in standard honey bee morphometrics (A4, B4, D7, E9, G18, J10, J16, K19, L13, N23 and O26) were measured. Multivariate linear discriminant analysis step-wise methods showed that A4, K19 and G18 were sufficient to discriminate between the samples. While A4 vein angle was found to be a key geometric character for the A. m. caucasica (NEA) race, B4 was found to be key for the A. m. carnica (IQC) race. Standard norm values of A4, and B4 are 33° and 104° for A. m. caucasica (NEA) race and 32° and 105° for A. m. carnica race (IQC). It is possible to discriminate unknown worker bee samples of these subspecies by using these standard norm values. The range of real and observed agreement for estimation of unknown samples was 0.93–0.77 for A. m. carnica and 0.89-0.65 for A. m. caucasica honey bee subspecies. Although in discriminant analysis Thrace and Carniolan (IQC) honey bee samples were overlapping in low percentage, according to forewing geometric veinal angles they were found to be similar.