Wing morphometrics reveals the migration patterns of Africanized honey bees in Northeast Brazil

Caroline Julio Moretti,Claudineia Pereira Costa,Tiago Maurício Francoy

doi:10.13102/sociobiology.v65i4.3403

Caroline Julio Moretti, Claudineia Pereira Costa + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v65i4.3403

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Abstract

Climatic differences can directly affect the population structure of organisms. The Northeastern Brazilian covers an area of about 1.5 million square kilometres, in which the semi-arid part corresponds to approximately 60%. It is probably the most vulnerable region to climatic variations in Brazil. Here, we investigated the variability of Africanized honey bees in different localities from Northeast Brazil during the dry season and the influence of drought periods in morphological variation among populations. Analyses were carried out with data collected by traditional and geometric morphometrics of bees sampled during the dry season and showed a subtle morphological variation in agreement to the climatic pattern. Furthermore, once we added samples collected during the rainy season, we observed a change in its pattern, with a very different result from the same population sampled during drought periods. The geometric morphometrics results emphasized that samples collected during the rainy season in Mossoró would be more similar to bees from humid coastal areas. These results probably reflect the probable dispersion pattern of these bees between humid coastal and semi-arid areas.

Highlights

Since its introduction to Brazil, in 1956 (Gonçalves, 1974), Africanized bees have occupied almost the entire American continent, from northern Argentina to the USA (Rinderer et al, 1993)
Previous studies have shown that the presence of Africanized honey bee colonies in semi-arid is high during the rainy season, but these bees become scarce in the dry season (Freitas et al, 2007)
Using the data sets from traditional morphometric measurements, we found a subtle separation of bees according to the climates, with workers from Mossoró entirely differentiated according to the sampling period, grouping oppositely in the scatter plot (Fig 2A)

Summary

Introduction

Since its introduction to Brazil, in 1956 (Gonçalves, 1974), Africanized bees have occupied almost the entire American continent, from northern Argentina to the USA (Rinderer et al, 1993). Previous studies have shown that the presence of Africanized honey bee colonies in semi-arid is high during the rainy season, but these bees become scarce in the dry season (Freitas et al, 2007). It suggests that Africanized honey bees could migrate from semi-arid areas to regions where environmental conditions are more favorable during drought periods (Freitas et al, 2007). In areas constantly subjected to disturbance, bees must continually adapt to these changes, otherwise absconding can occur towards more favorable areas, a fact that is even more exacerbated in Africanized honey bees (Freitas et al, 2007)

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