A Study of Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L. 1758) Population in Some Regions in Northwest Iran Using the Geometric Morphometric Method

The honey bee is one of the most important and economic species of insects due to its important role in the pollination of agricultural and non-agricultural plants and the products it produces directly. The western honey bee Apis mellifera, which is now considered a cosmopolitan species due to its widespread distribution by humans, originated in Africa, Europe, and West Asia. In order to evaluate the diversity of this bee in parts of the northwest of the country, worker bees were collected from 6 study stations in West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan provinces and evaluated using the geometric morphometric method. Changes in the size and shape of the forewing and hindwings were investigated using 16 homologous landmarks at the bifurcation of the wings. In terms of the size of the fore and hindwings, the Chahar Borj population of West Azerbaijan had the largest and the Malekan population of East Azerbaijan had the smallest fore and hindwings, and populations of all the study stations of East Azerbaijan had significant differences with West Azerbaijan. In terms of the shape of the forewing, all pairwise compared populations except for the population of Sahand mountain and Kordeh Deh village had significant differences, but in the hindwing, this difference was seen only in three pairwise comparisons. In addition, the regression analysis showed that, unlike the hindwing, changes in the wing size and wing shape in the forewing are dependent on each other, and allometry is also seen. This study showed that despite the proximity of the study stations to each other, diversity is observed in the bee populations.