New Morphometric Approach to Discriminate Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Populations in Türkiye

Abstract

Today, 29 subspecies have been defined, each of which is adapted to a certain set of environmental characteristics, spreading all over the world except Antarctica. Many morphological and morphometric features have been used to classify honey bees from the past to the present. It has been reported that features such as length, angle and indices coming from the front wings are very efficient for classification. In recent studies, various programs have been developed and automatic classification has been attempted through the images of bee wings. This study aimed to determine the naturally occurring honey bee biodiversity in Turkiye by measuring 7 areas (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7) on the right front wing. For this purpose, a total of 3392 worker bee samples were collected from 143 colonies in 19 provinces of Turkiye. The photographs of the prepared preparations were taken at 1X magnification with the BAB camera system connected to the BAB STR45 stereozoom microscope. The measurements of 7 areas on the right front wings of honey bee populations distributed in Turkiye were made automatically in the BAB Bs200ProP program. Colony averages of the raw data of the area measurements of each province were taken and the results were evaluated with Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA) in the SPSS.15 package program. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was applied to separate the groups to determine the variation within and between groups. As a result of this study, the minimum total area was seen in Van at 4.51 and the maximum total area was seen in Ardahan at 5.76. The average size of the measured areas decreased from the north-east to the south of Turkiye. Area measurements on the forewing were found to be a marker for distinguishing Anatolian (A. m. anatoliaca) and Caucasian (A. m. caucasica) honey bees.

Keywords

• Türkiye
• Anatolian honey bee (A. m. anatoliaca)
• Caucasican honeybee (A. m. caucasica)
• Front Wing
• Area

Türkiye'de Bal Arısı (Apis mellifera L.) Populasyonlarının Ayırt Edilmesi İçin Yeni Morfometrik Yaklaşım

Abstract

Günümüzde Antartika kıtası hariç dünyanın her yerinde yayılış gösteren, her biri belirli bir çevresel özelliklere adapte olmuş 29 alt tür tanımlanmıştır. Geçmişten günümüze kadar bal arılarını sınıflandırmak için birçok morfolojik ve morfometrik özellikler kullanılmıştır. Yapılan çalışmalarda ön kanatlardan gelen uzunluk, açı ve indeksler gibi özelliklerin sınıflandırma için çok etkili olduğu bildirilmiştir. Son yıllarda yapılan çalışmalarda çeşitli programlar geliştirilmiş, arı kanatlarının görüntüleri aracılığıyla otomatik sınıflandırma yapılmaktadır. Bu çalışmada sağ ön kanatta yer alan 7 alan (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7) ölçülerek Türkiye'de doğal olarak bulunan bal arısı biyoçeşitliliğinin belirlenmesine çalışılmıştır. Bu amaçla Türkiye'nin 19 ilindeki 143 koloniden toplam 3392 işçi arı örneği toplanmıştır. Hazırlanan preparatların fotoğrafları BAB STR45 stereozoom mikroskobuna bağlı BAB kamera sistemiyle 1X büyütmede çekilmiştir. Türkiye’de yayılış gösteren bal arısı populasyonlarının sağ ön kanatları üzerindeki 7 alanın ölçümleri BAB Bs200ProP programında otomatik olarak yapılmıştır. Her ile ait alan ölçümlerinin ham verilerinin koloni ortalamaları alınarak sonuçlar SPSS.15 paket programında Diskriminant Fonksiyon Analizi (DFA) ile değerlendirilmiştir. Grup içi ve gruplar arası varyasyonun belirlenmesinde grupları ayırmada çok değişkenli varyans analizi (MANOVA) uygulanmıştır. Bu çalışmanın sonucunda minimum toplam alan 4.51 ile Van'da görülürken maksimum toplam alan 5.76 ile Ardahan’da görülmüştür. Ölçülen alanların ortalama büyüklüğü Türkiye'nin kuzey doğusundan güneyine doğru azalmıştır. Ön kanattaki alan ölçümlerinin Anadolu (A. m. anatoliaca) ve Kafkas (A. m. caucasica) bal arılarını ayırt etmede kullanılabilecek bir marker olduğu görülmüştür.

Keywords

• Anadolu bal arısı (A. m. anatoliaca)
• Kafkas bal arısı (A. m. caucasica)
• Ön kanat
• alan
• Türkiye

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