Morphometric variability of wild honey bees of the mountain forest zone of Crimea as a material for breeding

¹ V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, Pr. Vernadsky, 4, 295007, Russia Republic of Crimea, Simferopol, Russia
² Bashkir State Pedagogical University named after M. Akmulla, 3-a Oktyabrskoj revoljucii St., 450008, Ufa, Russia
³ A.N. Severtsov Institute for Ecology and Evolution of RAS, Pr Leninskij, 33, 119071, Moscow, Russia
⁴ Nursery “Orekhovod practitioner”, Lenin Street, 31, 298471, village Tankovoe, Bakhchisaray District, Republic of Crimea

^* Corresponding author: t.o.bykova@mail.ru

Abstract

The results of studies of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) from two points are presented: from a bee colony captured near the Tankovoye village (this swarm was found by a local resident an entrepreneur, the owner of the private nursery “Orekhovod – practitioner” I.S. Emirsinov) and bees captured in the vicinity of Sugut-Oba mountain (Burus) from a swarm captured about 25 km to the southeast of Belogorsk and west of the Feodosia height. Measurements of morphometric features were carried out using the method of V.V. Alpatov (1948), the method of F. Ruttner (2006) was used to identify the morphotypes and the width of the hairline of worker bees. The phenotypic homogeneity of bee colonies from the Tankovoye village was revealed by morphotypes and the width of the hairline on the abdomen of worker bees in the presence of a variety of classical morphometric characters. At the same time, one phenotype characterized by morphotype O (light brown coloration of chitinous integuments on the abdomen) and a narrow hairline f was registered. The presence of this phenotype characterizes the compliance with the breed standards of Apis mellifera caucasica (gray mountain Caucasian), Apis mellifera carpatica (Carpathian) or Apis mellifera carnica (Carniolan), i.e. breeds with a gray abdomen. Molecular genetic analysis of the mtDNA COI site showed the homogeneity of the sample of wild bees captured near the Tankovoye village and their proximity to the Vuchkovskaya line of the Carpathian breed.