Study and comparison of morphological characteristics of dwarf honey bees, Apis florea F. (Hymenoptera, Apidae) in Iran

The dwarf honey bee, Apis florea F. is one of the two species of honey bees in Iran which is found in southern, southeastern and western provinces. In present study, some morphological characters of dwarf honey bee and effects of geographic and climatic conditions on morphological changes were studied. For this purpose, 600 worker bees were collected from 30 colonies in Sistan-Baluchestan, Hormozgan, Kerman, Fars, Bushehr, Khuzestan and Kohkiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad during year 2010. Then, 17 morphological characteristics were measured and 10200 data were obtained. To determine geographical and climatic variables, average values collected by meteorological stations were used. Analysis of variance of morphometric characters showed that characteristic of hind metatarsus width had the lowest diversity. However, length of half loop over the third and fourth dorsal abdominal segments, length of hind leg and tongue had the highest diversity as the most distinctive morphological characteristics throughout the Iranian dwarf honey bee. The number of right wing hooks were more than left wing hooks. So, it is suggested to count just the number of right hooks. The bees from Kohkiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad were significantly larger than the other bees in length of thethird and fourth dorsal abdominal segments as well as length and width of the front wings and hind leg, while, bees from Hormozgan and Bushehr were the smallest throughout the studied regions. There was a significant positive correlation between the width of the third and fourth dorsal abdominal segments, length and width of the front wing and length of hind leg. There was also a significant negative correlation between the length of tongue and length of fore wing and cubital index. Besides, there was a significant positive correlation within specification of the third and fourth dorsal abdominal segments, length and width of the front wings, and length of legs in dwarf bees with latitude, elevation and annual rainfall. Results indicated that bees from highlands are larger and also confirmed that wing of honey bees in elevated and high rainfall areas has less hook numbers.