-Multivariate morphometric analyses were performed on 2923 individual worker bees from 184 colonies representing 103 localities across the full distributional area of Apis florea Fabricius 1787 from Vietnam and southeastern China to Iran and Oman (~7000 km). Morphologically A. florea is unequivocally separable from A. andreniformis. Comparisons of geographically separated A. florea populations result in morphoclusters that reflect sampling artifacts. These morphoclusters change clinally with latitude but overlap when the full database is contained in the same principal component analysis. A cluster analysis based on Euclidean distances suggests degrees of affinity between various geographic groupings of A. florea. This species occupies a large area that includes rainforests, savannas, subtropical steppes, and semideserts. The seasonality of reproductive swarming is temporally continuous allowing gene flow throughout this panmictic species.Apis florea / morphometrics / distribution / biogeography / swarming / migration

-Multivariate analyses of morphometric traits of Apis cerana were measured from 3704 individual workers of 279 colonies from 64 localities with an average sampling distance resolution of 50 km along a 2200 km transect in the southern Himalayan region bordered by Pakistan to the west and Myanmar to the east. Factor and discriminant function analyses revealed four major morphoclusters (= unnamed subspecies), two of which are further subdivisable into three biometric subgroups each. These morphoclusters can only be partially integrated into any current subspecific nomenclature available for Apis cerana. Morphocluster separation is related to physiographic differences which create a partial temporal reproductive isolation associated with altitude. High variance domains occur at the edges of morphocluster and biometric groupings. The bees decrease in size from west to east but increase in size with increasing altitude. Apis cerana / honeybees / morphoclusters / population genetics / southern Himalayas

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract