Morphological diversity of honey bee populations across the country based PCA and minimum variance (WARD) methods

Although phenotypic treat show direct genetic variation, the present study was to identify and study genetic diversity in populations of honey bees that is an important goal in bee breeding. Thus, colony samples of honeybees were collected from 16 different provinces of iran randomly in autumn season of the year 93. Colony grouping was studied based on morphological traits using cluster analysis (PCA) and the least variance (WARD) methods. The results indicated that there was a correlation between front wings width or trunk and the antennae or front foot, the b index and diameter, d18 angle and d7 angle and also all mentioned trait had correlation with front wings in probability level of P<0.0001. Moreover a significant difference was observed among the provinces. Honey bee populations of 16 provinces were divided into 5 groups based on the average of their trait data and their coefficient of variation (front wings length and width, the posterior wings length, the trunk length, antennae length, front foot length, posterior leg length, the index a, the index b, stomach diameter, angleG18, angleA4 and angleD7). According to the mentioned grouping, Alborz, fars, Kurdistan and Zanjan provinces were assigned to group 1, Bushehr, Lorestan and East Azerbaijan to group 2, Qazvin and Hamedan to group 3, Kerman, Isfahan and Ghkylvyh Boyer to group 4 and eventually West Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Mazandaran and Golestan were assigned to group 5. Based on this results the PCA analysis divided the studied honeybees to 5 different groups. These results indicated that in one breed, Iranian honey bee and foreign honey bee populations were different in Morphological traits and its not ignorable.