Comparison of standard and geometric morphometric methods for discrimination of honey bees populations (Apis mellifera L.) in Iran

Abstract

There are two methods of morphometric and geometric for discriminating of honeybee races and populations. Currently, geometric morphometric method uses as inexpensive, fast and precise method for identifying of honeybee races and populations. In standard morphometric, seven distances and three angles were measured from the forewings, proboscis, abdomen and hind legs of different honeybee populations. In geometric morphometric, 18 landmarks were located at wing vein junctions. Five areas were selected as representatives of main geographical points of the North, West, East, Center and South from Iran. Procrustes analysis, principal component analysis, and Canonical variate analysis (CVA) was conducted for discriminating of collected samples. Average length of forewing, proboscis and cubital index were 9.01 mm, 6.55 mm and 2.4 in Iran. Results showed that geometric and standard morphometrics discriminated area populations 77.5 and 70.7% respectively therefore the geometric morphometric method was more precise and easier than the standard morphometric because we used only forewing for discrimination of populations.