Morphometric Characterization of Honey Bee, Apis mellifera Linnaeus, Inbred Lines in Korea

Abstract

The A, C, F colonies of Apis mellifera ligustica Spin. and D, V colony of Apis mellifera caucasia Gorb. bees were collected from 2005-2007. Consequently, inbred lines were derived from the bees of original colonies by matting in the isolated island with due regard for pure breeding. This project helps in the selection of colonies with higher production capacity, aiming to improve honey and royal jelly production and breeding programs. Twenty-three standard morphological traits of honeybee were evaluated, and samples were compared with the data of the two original subspecies. The result suggested that 8 traits partly preserved in bees of inbred lines, and the bees from A. m. ligustica preserved more traits than bees from A. m. caucasia. Among the studied inbred lines, the F line is distinguished by an increase in leg parameters, considered as a favorable phenotypic trait of inbred lines. Importantly, bred of beelines in the same area can be classified as remote and isolated areas. Therefore, we observed differences of inbred lines with the origin subspecies in description acquired with morphometric characteristics as a result of adaptation, breeding, purebred individual lines used as an important resource for breeding novel cross-breeding colonies.