Geographical Variation of Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L. 1758) Populations in South-Eastern Morocco: A Geometric Morphometric Analysis

Abstract

In Morocco, there are two well-recognised honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) subspecies: A. m. intermissa in the north and A. m. sahariensis in the south-east. The latter subspecies is found in the arid and semiarid climates of the Sahara Desert. In this study, we used honey bees from four areas of south-eastern Morocco which are, to some degree, isolated by arid zones. We analysed the shape and size of the forewings, using the method of geometric morphometrics. The bees from the four areas of south-eastern Morocco differed significantly in terms of wing shape. Moreover, bees from traditional hives were smaller than those from modern hives. The bees from south-eastern Morocco were clearly different from the reference samples obtained from the Morphometric Bee Data Bank in Oberursel, Germany, representing most of the global variation in honey bees. Surprisingly, the bees were also different from A. m. sahariensis, which should occur in the study area, according to earlier studies. This difference could have been caused by introgression with non-native subspecies imported by beekeepers. The distinct honey bees from south-eastern Morocco deserve to be protected. We provide a method for identifying them, which can help protect them.

The Impact of Environment on the Morphometric Characteristics of Honeybees Apis Mellifera Carnica in South-East Kazakhstan

“…After comprehensive studies of morphometric indicators of Apis mellifera carnica in South-East Kazakhstan, a trend was revealed to change the taxonomic affiliation of local bees in the apiaries of the region based on the assessment of morphometric characteristics. These changes were the result of the climatic diversity of the region, where there were different climatic and geographical zones (Aglagane et al, 2022).…”

Geometric morphometric characteristics of Apis mellifera honeybee in Kazakhstan

“…The morphological characteristics of honeybees are important in the identification and discrimination of honeybee subspecies (Tofilski 2008;Abou-Shaara 2013;Henriques et al 2020;Abed et al 2021;Masaquiza et al 2023). Wing size depends not only on genetics but also on environmental conditions (Janczyk et al 2021;Aglagane et al 2022). The centroid size of the investigated samples was between 6.75 and 6.79, whereas the identified A. m. carnica centroid size was between 6.74-6.76.…”

Host trees partially explain the complex bacterial communities of two threatened saproxylic beetles

“…Finally, the sequences were clustered at a 97% identity level using the UPARSE-OTU algorithm implemented in USEARCH.The product of our custom pipeline were tables with two levels of classification: ASVs (Amplicon Sequencing Variant) (also known as zOTUs -zeroradius Operational Taxonomic Units) describing genotypic diversity and OTUs (Operational Taxonomic Units)clustering genotypes based on a similarity threshold. ASVs have been used in the past for comparing the microbiota of different bees (Aglagane et al, 2023) or spittlebugs based on ASVs or 99.5% OTUs. The resulting tables were then used for a series of custom steps.…”