MORPHOMETRIC TEMPLATES OF DRONE WINGS AS A TOOL FOR SUBSPECIES AND POPULATION IDENTIFICATION IN APIS MELLIFERA COLONIES OF THE LVIV REGION, UKRAINE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31861/biosystems2026.02.226Keywords:
Apis mellifera carnica, Apis mellifera caucasica, Carpathian bees, Ukrainian Steppe bees, drones, wing morphology, classical morphometry, discriminant analysis, wing venation, Mahalanobis distance, Western UkraineAbstract
To develop morphometric templates (reference standards) of drone wings as a tool for determining the subspecies and population affiliation of honey bee colonies representing local populations.
A total of 3,206 drone wings from 31 colonies maintained at six apiaries in the Lviv region, Ukraine, were analyzed. Wing morphology was characterized within the framework of classical morphometry using a set of index-based traits, including established indices (Ci, Dbi, Pci, Disc. sh., and Ri) and additional indices proposed by the authors (Ci.1.1, Ci.2.1, Ci.2.2, and Ci.3). Cluster assignment of wing samples from the studied colonies was performed using Mahalanobis distances between the centroids of the reference templates and empirical clusters.
Both regional and local morphometric templates of drone wings were identified and associated with the Troiseck, Peschetz, and Sklenar breeding lines of A. m. carnica. In addition, local templates were identified for the apiary located in Grebeniv and designated as “Peschetz(G)” (A. m. carnica), “UkrBee1(G)” (presumably A. m. caucasica), and “UkrBee2(G)”, for which subspecies affiliation remains unresolved. These templates enabled the identification of 51 (85.0%) of the examined wing clusters and the assessment of the degree of morphological similarity (DS) for 30 (88.2%) clusters within individual apiaries, thereby providing evidence of admixture between lines or populations.
The analysis revealed the presence of multiple honey bee populations in the Lviv region, attributable to the subspecies Apis mellifera carnica and Apis mellifera caucasica. The assignment of drone wing phenotypes to subspecies and populations using classical morphometry demonstrated the utility of the proposed approach. The methodology may provide a preliminary means of assessing the probable composition of haploid genomes in drones and, indirectly, in queens, particularly with respect to genomic components associated with wing morphology
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