Computer software for identification of honey bee subspecies and evolutionary lineages

Abstract

Within the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), there are more than 20 recognised subspecies. It is well known that these subspecies differ in their wing venation patterns. However, there is a demand for efficient tools to identify honey bee subspecies, ecotypes, populations or hybrids. The aim of this study was to develop a fast and easy identification method based on analysing forewing vein patterns of honey bees by geometric morphometrics. Reference samples for the subspecies were obtained from the Morphometric Bee Data Bank in Oberursel, Germany. These contained 187 honey bee colonies allocated into 25 subspecies from four evolutionary lineages. The identification of evolutionary lineages of honey bees based on forewing venations proved to be highly reliable, which confirms earlier studies. The accuracy of honey bee subspecies identification was less consistent and ranged from 100 to 50% and was particularly low in African honey bees. The obtained identification data were exported to the IdentiFly computer software, which is freely available.