A morphometric model for determining the effect of commercial queen bee usage on the native honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) population in a Turkish province Ahmet Guler To cite this version: Ahmet Guler. A morphometric model for determining the effect of commercial queen bee usage onthe native honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) population in a Turkish province. Apidologie, Springer Verlag, 2010, 41 (6), 10.1051/apido/2010037. hal-00892085 HAL Id: hal-00892085 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00892085 Submitted on 1 Jan 2010 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. 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Apidologie 41 (2010) 622–635 Available online at: c INRA/DIB-AGIB/EDP Sciences, 2010 www.apidologie.org DOI: 10.1051/apido/2010037 Original article A morphometric model for determining the effect of commercial queen bee usage on the native honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) population in a Turkish province* Ahmet Guler Ondokuzmayis University, Agricultural Faculty, Animal Science Department, 55139 Kurupelit, Samsun, Turkey Received 5 September 2009 – Revised 11 December 2009 – Accepted 16 December 2009 Abstract – The objectives of this study were to (1) determine the effects of imported commercial queen bees from different geographical origin subspecies on the morphological variation of native honeybee population of the Turkeli area; and (2) apply a model to identify and predict the use of commercial queens subspecies. Standard classification function, discriminant function, and constant coefficients for 41 morphological char- acteristics were determined for two geographic Turkish honeybee subspecies (Apis mellifera anatoliaca and A. m. caucasica) used intensively for commercial queen rearing. Then, the morphological characteristics of unknown worker bee samples from the Turkeli area – where commercial queen bee usage is common – were investigated. The model showed that the area was subject to genetic mixing because of commercial queen usage. The subspecies of 15 unknown test samples were predicted with 100% confidence, and the native bees from 25 of 30 samples from the Turkeli area were successfully predicted using the model developed. Using the model proved that there was a commercial queen bee introduction into the Turkeli area, mainly from the A. m. caucasica subspecies. Apis mellifera / race / protection / queen bee / usage / morphometric / identifying functions 1. INTRODUCTION the Trace (Smith et al., 1997; Guler and Bek, 2002; Kandemir et al., 2000;Palmeretal., Anatolia is an important gene center of 2000), and A. m. syriaca in the southeast honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) subspecies and (Bodenheimer, 1942). In addition, some eco- ecotypes because of its ecological richness types have been described at the intersection and geographical position (Adam, 1983; Smith of the main geographic regions, such as Mugla et al., 1997). The subspecies found in Ana- in the Aegean region and Borçka-Camili in tolia are A. m. caucasica Gorbatchev in the the northeast Anatolia region (Ruttner, 1988a; northeast (Adam, 1983; Smith et al., 1997; Guler, 2001)(Fig.1). Furthermore, the ge- Guler and Kaftanoglu, 1999a), A. m. anato- netic richness of Anatolia has been supported liaca Maa in the centre (Bodenheimer, 1942; and expressed by recent studies (Bodur et al., Adam, 1983; Ruttner, 1988a; Gencer and 2007; Cesar et al., 2009). Firatli, 1999; Guler and Kaftanoglu, 1999b; Migratory beekeeping has been widespread Kandemir et al., 2000), A. m. meda in the east in Turkey for three decades. Furthermore, and southeast Anatolia (Bodenheimer, 1942; commercial queen bees have been widely Ruttner, 1988a), A. m. carnica Pollmann in available in the past 20 to 25 years (Guler Corresponding author: A. Guler, and Demir, 2005). Migratory beekeeping has [email protected] been prohibited in northeast Anatolia for the * Manuscript editor: David Tarpy past three decades to protect A. m. caucasica Article published by EDP Sciences Morphological mixing of native bee subspecies? 623 Figure 1. The native honeybee subspecies (A. m. anatoliaca, A. m. caucasica, A. m. carnica and A. m. meda) and the genotype of West anatolia (Aegean) were determined by Ruttner (1988). Samples of this study were collected from which are indicated by on asterisk (*) (Adapted from Smith et al., 1997). However, there has been no other legislation of imported commercial queens on the other with respect to which subspecies or ecotype is region’s honeybee subspecies, although the suitable to what region. Queens and colonies value of protecting native races is well recog- reared from different honeybee subspecies (A. nised (Ruttner, 1988a; Rinderer et al., 1993; m. caucasica, A. m. anatoliaca) have been Kauhausen-Keller and Keller, 1994). On the sold without control for regions with native other hand, some geographic subspecies have geographic subspecies. The same is true for preserved their genetic identifies for a long other regions and bee subspecies. It is known time in different geographic regions (Whitfield that native honeybee subspecies and ecotypes et al., 2006; Delaney et al., 2009). Twenty-four might have lost their characteristics because distinct taxonomic groups (subspecies) can be of hybridisation caused by migratory beekeep- discerned by morphometric methods (Ruttner, ing, commercial queen bee usage, and un- 1988a). Therefore, we need additional identi- controlled mating (Rinderer, 1986; Ruttner, fication coefficients of many other morpholog- 1988b; Moritz, 1991; Kauhausen-Keller et al., ical characteristics for the identification and 1997; Lodesani and Costa, 2003; Moritz, discrimination of unknown or hybrid worker 2004). The mixing of the native subspecies has bee samples. occurred because beekeepers prefer different The aims of this study were: (1) to de- races for their higher productivity. It is thought termine the standard morphometric classifica- that the level of mixing caused by commercial tion coefficients, canonical discriminant func- queen-bee usage is particularly high because tion coefficients, and constant coefficients of of the haplodiploid genetic structure of hon- the two Turkish native honeybee subspecies eybees (Rinderer, 1986; Poklukar and Kezic, (A. m. anatoliaca and A. m. caucasica)most 1994); one queen bee can lay about 4 to 5 thou- commonly used for commercial queen rear- sands unfertilised eggs in each season, which ing; and (2) to apply a model for determin- all develop into drones (male sexuals). In ad- ing the effect of imported commercial queen dition, because they are haploid, one drone bees on the morphological characteristics of can produce 10 million of spermatozoa that native honeybees of the Turkeli area of the are genetically identical to each other. How- Sinop province, as well as predicting the ori- ever, there is no information on the effect gin of any unknown worker bee samples. 624 A. Guler 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS in queen bees, there has been no introduction of honeybees into the area. Trade in queens has taken 2.1. Honeybee material place for the past 10 to 15 years, although there are villages where no commercial queens have been We studied the morphological characteristics of used. The honeybee samples used for this study worker honeybees belonging to two types of bee- were collected from apiaries that have used com- keeping enterprises: those rearing queens using the mercial queen bees for many years and others which original geographic honey bee subspecies and those have never used them. The worker honeybee sam- using commercially reared queens. ples were collected from six villages in Turkeli: Turhan, Duzler, Yesiloba, Catakguney, Akcabuk, and town centre. A total of 30 samples were ran- 2.1.1. Origin of geographic subspecies domly selected from five colonies from each vil- reference worker bee samples lage. The distance between the villages from which the samples were collected varied from 3 to 45 km. Samples were obtained in each case from a commercial queen-rearing enterprise. The Cau- casian subspecies was evaluated as two popula- tions: Caucasian Ardahan-Posof (CRA-P) and Cau- 2.2. Methods casian Artvin-Camili (CRA-C). Although these are both Caucasian, the honeybee populations First, samples of worker native geographic of CRA-P and CRA-C are significantly different subspecies used for commercial queen rearing were from each other in morphological, physiological, investigated to develop the standards, clustering and behavioural characteristics because of ecolog- diagrams, descriptive standard morphological clas- ical differences between the geographic regions sification function coefficients, canonical discrim- (Guler, 2001; Dodologlu and Genc, 2002;Guler inant function coefficients, and constant coeffi- and Alpay, 2005). The Caucasian queen bee sub- cients to be used for determining the subspecies species has been reared by the Development Foun- of unknown worker bee samples. The morpholog- dation of Turkey (TKV) for more than 25 years ical characteristics of 84 worker honeybee samples in Ankara province and by other enterprises in from CRA-P (30 samples), CRA-C (30 samples), Artvin (Borçka-Camili) and Ardahan-Posof