Morphological diversity of Iranian small honey bee (Apis Florea) population based Principal component analysis and minimum variance methods

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
S.S. Fatemi 1
T Harkinezhad 2
M.B. Farshine Adl 3
L. GHaredaghi 4
1 MSc graduated student of animal breeding and genetics, University of Zanjan
2 Animal Science Department, University of Zanjan
3 Academic staff of honey bee department, National Research Institute of Animal Science
4 PhD student of animal breeding and genetics, University of Zanjan
10.22077/jlr.2025.4061
Abstract
Small honey bee (Apis florea) is one of the two Iranian honey bee species that can be found in the south provinces of Iran, and plays important role in pollination of plants in these areas. The present study was aimed to study genetic diversity in populations of the small honey bee which is a key feature in bee breeding plans. For this purpose, 300 worker bees were selected from 29 colonies that belong to seven districts in south of Iran, and 11 morphological traits were measured. Clustering of colony populations was studied based on key morphological traits using cluster analysis (PCA) and the least variance method. The result indicated that there was a correlation between the length of trunk with front wing width and posterior wing length, and between Cubital index with front wing width (P
Keywords
Morphological diversity
PCA
Small honey bee