Morphometric studies with pure bred stock of Apis mellifera carnica Pollmann from Hessen

Abstract

Breeder colonies were studied to determine whether pure Carnica, according to the breeding guidelines, might be hybrids between Carnica and Mellifera according to other characteristics not considered by the guidelines. For this purpose, a total of 123 samples of 30 bees each from Hessian Carnica breeder colonies were checked morphometrically according to the guidelines 10 the Deutscher Imkerbund. In addition, 10 other characteristics of the wing veination which are not under control of the breeders were determined and compared to typical Apis mellifera carnica and A m mellifera from the biometric data bank of Oberursel. Results: 1) Being of high interest to the breeders, and as a consequence of selection, the characteristic ’cubital index’ shows considerably higher values than in A m carnica; 2) from discriminant analyses considering other characteristics than the cubital index, a high degree of similarity appears between the samples from Hessen and typical A m carnica. Deviations from A m carnica tend rather to other directions than toward A m mellifera; 3) as judged by frequency distributions of single characteristics, however, similarities with A m mellifera can also be seen. A hybridisation with A m mellifera cannot be safely excluded, therefore, but seems to play a minor role only. An influence of genes from other races than Mellifera is more likely.