Morphometric and Wings Venation Analysis of Honey Bee Species in Dehradun, Uttarakhand

ISSN 2456-7876 Archive of Life Science and Environment (Arch. Life Sci. & Env.) 1 (2): 21-25 (2017)

Ashish Uniyal1* Neetika Thakur1, Diksha Thakur1 and Nikhil S. Kahera1 1 Department of Zoology, Uttaranchal College of Science and Technology, (Dehradun-248001) Uttarakhand, INDIA *Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected]

Astrat: Alost all speies of hoe ees ae foud i Idia. Hoe ees pla a ipotat ole i the oseatio of iodiesit ad eolutio of a plat speies polliatio. The peset stud iestigates ophologial haates of hoe ees usig a siple tehiue alled as Sa Photo Tehiue. Sa Photo Tehiue STP is a lo ost, fast ad easie ethod fo ophoeti disiiatio fo hoe ee popula- tios. Soe ophologial haateistis of od pats of hoe eeokes ee seleted ad disseted hih ee futhe saed as iage usig a sae. Statistial aalses of ophologial haateistis of hoe ees suh as foe ig legth FWL, hid ig legth HWL, foe ig idth FWW, hid ig legth HWW, feu legth FM, tia legth TL, asitasus legth BL ad the legth of uital idees ad agles of foe igs ad hid ig ee disiiated.

Introduction Morphometric and wing pattern study is laborious and time consuming for the identification of bee species. Honeybee is the member of genus Apis and belongs to Thus standard and geometric morphometrics were em- class insecta (order hymenoptera). Currently only sev- ployed in combination with various computer soft- en species of honeybees viz Apis dorsata, Apis wares and simple methods for investigating wings cerana, Apis mellifera, Apis nearctica, Apis symmetry and for discriminating between Apis spp. florae, Apis koschevnikovi and Apis nigrocincta are recognized with a total of 44 subspecies. The major Materials and Methods species of honey bees found in India are Apis cerana Study Insect indica, Apis dorsata, Apis florae which represent only Apis dorsata: Apis dorsata, the giant honey bee, is a a small fraction of 20,000 species. The common honey bee of South and Southeast Asia, mainly found method for the characterization and classification of in forest areas such as the Terai of Nepal and honeybee subspecies is based mainly on measuring sometimes even in Malaysia and Singapore. They are honey bee wing characters, which is considered as typically around 17 – 20 mm (0.7 - 0.8 in) long in size. strong tool for measurement (Rattanawannee et al., Nests are mainly built in exposed places far off the 2010). Various honey bee colonies, races and species ground like on tree limbs, under cliff overhangs and were discriminated by employing morphometric anal- sometimes on buildings. ysis (Nedic et al., 2011; Rattanawannee et al., 2010) Apis cerrena indica: Apis cerena indica, the Indian but not many studies are undertaken on geometric honeybee or eastern honeybee, is a subspecies of morphometric of honey bees. honeybee. It is one of the predominant bees found and Apis dorsata, Apis cerana, Apis mellifera are found in domesticated in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Burma, Uttarakhand and Apis dorsata and Apis cerana are Banglades, Sri Lanka, Thailand and mainland Asia. mostly found in Dehradun region. Apis dorsata is Relatively non-aggressive and rarely exhibiting commonly known as giant rock bee, found in the wild swarming behaviour. and is the largest spp. of honeybee. It is ferocious in Study area nature so it is impossible to domesticate them. Dehradun is situated between the latitude 30° 19' in the Apis cerana commonly known as Asian bee is found in North to longitude 78° 04' in the East. Dehradun is the wild and contains 8 subspecies, out of which situated at an altitude of 2,200 ft. It contains total Apis cerana indica and Apis cerana cerana are mostly 3088.00 sq km area. Dehra Dun can be divided into domesticated. two distinct tracts i.e. the mountain tract and the sub-

All Rights Reserved © Navya Society of Higher Education, www.archiveofsciences.com Ashish Uniyal et al. / Arch. Life Sci. & Env. 1 (2): 21-25 (2017) ISSN 2456-7876 mountain tract. width of fore wing ranges from 1.26 to 1.27 cm and In the present study, few fore wings and hind wings for 0.43 to 0.47 cm respectively, length and width of hind two honey bee races were used. Samples of workers wing ranges from 0.80 to 0.83 cm and 0.20 to 0.22 cm honey bee were collected from brood combs at Cantt, and length of leg is 1.4 cm. Length of femur ranges City and Rajpur region in Dehradun for morphometric from 0.30 to 0.34 cm and length of tibia is 0.36 to 0.39 analysis and few were collected from flowers with the cm, length of metatarsus ranges from 0.51 to 0.54 cm help of hand net and subsequently killed at 0°C. and width of metatarsus is 0.1 cm. The morphological Measuring of morphological characters: The tested characters of Apis cerena collected from different morphological characters of forewing length and regions of Dehradun showed that the length and width width, hind wing length and width, femur length, tibia of fore wing of ranges from 0.85 to 0.86 cm and 0.29 length, tarsus length, width, cubital indexes, fore wing to 0.31 cm respectively, length and width of hind wing angles and hind wing angles were measured. ranges from 0.52 to 0.55 cm and 0.16 to 0.17 cm and Measurements of the above mentioned characters were length of leg is 1.03. Length of femur ranges from 0.28 taken according to Gomeh et al. (2016), Abou Shaara, Al-Ghamdi (2012), El-Aw et al. (2012), Abou-Shaara et al. (2011), Eid et al. (2010) and Ruttner (1988) with little modification. The experiment was conducted to evaluate the developed technique where morphological characters were measured by Scan Photo method. In Scan Photo method all of the studied morphological characters were measured using scanner. The separated body parts of worker bees were put on glass slides and covered with another glass slides. The slides were scanned and moved into the computer as images. The images were opened on the Photoshop program and characters were measured by ImageTool 3.0 program Figure 1b. HL (Hind wing length), HW (Hind wing (http://compdent.uthscsa.edu/dig/itdesc.html) and us- width). ing Image J 1.46 program/ using Image Tool 3.0 program (Klingenberg, 2011). Results and Discussion Standard morphometric was used for the discrimination between the two races of honeybees in Dehradun region i.e. Apis dorsata and Apis cerana from different areas (Cantt City and Rajpur) using morphometric study (Table 1 and 2). The result of present study showed that the morphological characters of Apis dorsata collected from different regions of Dehradun such as length and

Figure 1a. Forewing- FL (Fore wing length), FW Figure 1c. Length of femur (FL), tibia length (TL) and (Fore wing width). metatarsus (MTL), width of metatarsus (MTW).

Figure 1. Measuring of morphological characters for only one chosen fore wing, hind wing, leg by using the Pho- toshop program and image tool

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Figure 2. Eighteen landmarks on vein junctions of fore Figure 3. Angles formed on the forewing. wing.

Figure 4. Measuring of Distance DC and Distance DD CB of forewing. Cubital Index (CI) = ------BA Figure 5. Fore wing of honey bee worker used for measurements of cubital index.

Figure 6. Measuring of Cubital A (CA) and Cubital B (CB). to 0.30 cm and length of tibia is 0.30 to 0.33 cm, Figure 2. Measuring off three hind wing angles; H1, length of metatarsus ranges from 0.34 to 0.36 cm and H2 and H3. width of metatarsus is 0.1 cm. However, geometric morphometric of fore wing points mean length of DC in the fore wing of Apis dorsata is was used for discrimination between the two races 0.30 ± 0.04 to 0.32 ± 0.04 and the mean length of DD based on their measurements and different wing in the fore wing of Apis dorsata is 0.53 ± 0.05 to 0.55 venation angles. The measurement of given characters ± 0.05. The mean length of DC in the fore wing of of honey bee from Cantt City and Rajpur showed that Apis cerana is 0.19 ± 0.00 to 0.20 ± 0.00 and the mean angle A is 39° to 41°, B is 87° to 89° and C is 78° to length of DD in the fore wing of Apis cerana is 0.3 ± 79° in the fore wing of honeybee Apis dorsata. How- 0.00 to 0.4 ± 0.00. The mean length of CA in the fore ever, in Apis cerana the angle A is 59° to 61°, B is 81° wing of Apis dorsata is 0.41 ± 0.05 to 0.43 ± 0.05 and to 82° and C is 77° to 78°. The mean cubital index for the mean length of CB in the forewing of Apis dorsata fore wings of Apis dorsata is 0.01 ± 0.00 to 0.02 ± is 0.21 ± 0.04 to 0.24 ± 0.04. The mean length of CA 0.00 and Apis cerana is 0.01 ± 0.00. Moreover, the in the forewing of Apis cerana is 0.19 ± 0.05 to 0.20 ±

23 Ashish Uniyal et al. / Arch. Life Sci. & Env. 1 (2): 21-25 (2017) ISSN 2456-7876 Table 1. Mean of morphometric measurement of Apis dorsata and Apis cerana in Dehradun.

Mean ± SE Morphological Apis dorsata Apis cerena Characters Cantt City Rajpur Cantt City Rajpur Fore wing length 1.26 ± 0.17 1.27 ± 0.14 1.26 ± 0.14 0.86 ±0.17 0.85 ± 0.19 0.86 ± 0.19 (FWL) Fore wing width 0.43 ± 0.17 0.43 ± 0.14 0.47 ± 0.20 0.29 ±0.07 0.30 ± 0.15 0.31 ± 0.11 (FWW) Hind wing length 0.83 ± 0.17 0.81 ± 0.17 0.80 ± 0.13 0.52 ± 0.14 0.55 ± 0.16 0.55 ± 0.18 (HWL) Hind wing width 0.17 ± 0.20 ± 0.07 0.21±0.09 0.22 ± 0.08 0.16 ± 0.11 0.16 ±0.09 (HWW) 00.15 Total Leg length 1.4 ± 0.30 1.4 ±0.27 1.4 ± 0.24 1 ± 0.21 1.03 ± 0.34 1.03 ± 0.09 (TL) Femur length (FL) 0.30 ± 0.02 0.30 ± 0.02 0.34 ± 0.02 0.28 ± 0.03 0.30 ± 0.02 0.28 ± 0.03 Tibia length (TL) 0.39 ± 0.07 0.38 ± 0.03 0.36± 0.03 0.33 ± 0.02 0.30± 0.02 0.33 ± 0.02 Metatarsus length 0.51 ± 0.01 0.54 ± 0.01 0.54 ± 0.02 0.36 ± 0.02 0.34 ± 0.02 0.34 ± 0.02 (MTL) Metatarsus width 0.1± 0.00 0.1± 0.00 0.1± 0.00 0.1± 0.00 0.1± 0.00 0.1± 0.00 (MTW) Table 2. Morphometric measurement of Apis dorsata and Apis cerana in Dehradun.

Mean ± SE Morphological Apis dorsata Apis cerena Characters Cantt City Rajpur Cantt City Rajpur Angle A 40° 39° 41° 61° 59° 60° Angle B 88° 87° 89° 82° 81° 81° Angle C 79° 78° 80° 78° 77° 79° Cubital index (CI) 0.01±0.00 0.01±0.00 0.01±0.00 0.01±0.00 0.01±0.00 0.01±0.00 DC 0.31±0.04 0.30±0.04 0.32±0.04 0.20±0.00 0.19±0.00 0.19±0.00 DD 0.53±0.05 0.53±0.05 0.55±0.05 0.4±0.00 0.3±0.00 0.3±0.00 CA 0.43±0.05 0.41±0.05 0.43±0.05 0.21±0.00 0.20±0.00 0.19±0.00 CB 0.21±0.04 0.22±0.04 0.24±0.04 0.10±0.00 0.9±0.00 0.9±0.00 Angle H1 29° 28° 30° 29° 30° 29° Angle H2 38° 37° 39° 38° 39° 39° Angle H3 80° 79° 81° 70° 68° 70° 0.00 and the mean length of CB in the forewing of Conclusion Apis cerana is 0.9 ± 0.00 to 0.10 ± 0.00. The angle H1 in the hindwing of Apis dorsata is 28° to 30°, the angle The present study concluded results of morphological H2 in the hind wing of Apis dorsata is 37° to 39° and characters using simple standard and geometrical the angle H3 in the hind wing of Apis dorsata is 79° to morphometric analyses with the help of software. The 81°. The angle H1 in the hind wing of Apis cerana is present study strongly confirmed that the symmetry 29° to 30°, the angle H2 in the hind wing of Apis and length of honey bee wings along with other param- cerana is 38° to 39° and the angle H3 in the hind wing eters showed discrimination between two races. of Apis cerana is 68° to 70°. References The measurement of small part of wing venations of honey bee strongly confirmed the symmetry of honey bee Abou-Shaara, H.F. & Al-Ghamdi, A.A. (2012). Studies on wings using simple technique and with the help of image wings symmetry and honey bee races discrimination tool that help in successful discrimination between the by using standard a geometric morphometrics’. - two races. Biotechnology in Animal Husbandry, 28 (3): 575 584. Eid, K.S.A., Draz, K.A.A., EL-AW, M.A.M. & Abou-

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