Morphometric taxonomy of honeybee races of Apis mellifera L. in Kaduna state

Abstract

This study was aimed at classifying Apis mellifera subspecies in Kaduna State based on variations in morphometric features of samples collected from five Apiaries in the State. The measured variables were subjected to analysis with parametric statistic tools of mean, standard deviation and standard error. The distribution and relation between them were subjected to two step cluster analysis and morphoclusters means were presented in centroids. The honeybee samples were classified into two distinct morphoclusters. Morphoclusters 1 constituted 41.6% of honeybees in the State while morphoclusters 2 had 58.4%. The distribution by farm of A. mellifera in Kaduna State showed all honeybee samples collected from Farm III (100%) were of morphoclusters 1 and also morphoclusters 2 in Farm IV (100%). On the contrary, Farm I (62%) and Farm V (85%) recorded majority of honeybees in morphoclusters 2 while Farm II had honeybees evenly distributed within the two morphoclusters. The result of this research revealed that variations in morphometric features of honeybee workers can serve as an effective tool for classifying A. mellifera species in Kaduna into variants of the subspecies.