Authors : Gonca Ozmen Ozbakir, Seyrani Koncagul, Sahin Cadirci and Cetin Firatli
Abstract: In this study, 38 apiaries along the Southeast border of Turkey with 3 countries were visited and 3340 worker honey bee specimen were collected from 167 colonies. The worker honey bees were collected from populations in Van, Hakkari, Sirnak, Mardin, Sanliurfa, Kilis and Hatay in Turkey; Lattakia, Idlib, Aleppo, Ar-Raqqah and Dayr az-Zawr in Syria; Urmia, Maku and Khoy in Iran, locations along the common border in the Southeast of Turkey. Nine morphological characters measured for each worker bee were: Tongue Length (TL), length of hairs on tergite 5 (HL), Forewing Length (FWL), Forewing Width (FWW), Hind Leg Length (HLL), Cubital Index (CI), longitudinal (T3+T4), Tomentum Index (TI) and Metatarsal Index (MTI). In general, heritability estimates from pooled data ranged from 0.36±0.004 for CI to 0.87±0.003 for FWL from 0.42±0.004 for CI to 0.99±0.003 for FWL and from 0.43±0.004 for CI to 1.03±0.003 for FWL when effective number of matings that a virgin queen made changed from 7, 13 or 17, respectively.
Gonca Ozmen Ozbakir, Seyrani Koncagul, Sahin Cadirci and Cetin Firatli, 2012. Genetic Parameters of Some Morphological Traits in Honey Bee Populations (Apis mellifera L.) along the Southeast Border of Turkey. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 11: 1734-1738.