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. 2024 Apr 26:12:e17247.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.17247. eCollection 2024.

Influence of honey bee (Apis mellifera) breeding on wing venation in Serbia and neighbouring countries

Hardeep Kaur  1 , Nebojša Nedić  2 , Adam Tofilski  1
Affiliations

Influence of honey bee (Apis mellifera) breeding on wing venation in Serbia and neighbouring countries

Hardeep Kaur et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

In order to improve the productivity of honey bees (Apis mellifera), some of their traits are selected by breeding. On one hand, breeding is mainly based on the natural geographical variation of this species; on the other hand, mass production and distribution of artificially selected queens can significantly affect the natural geographic variation of honey bees. In this study, we have compared honey bee wings originating from breeding and non-breeding populations in Serbia. In the comparison, we have also used data from a large area of south-eastern Europe. The wings were measured using the 19 landmarks indicated on the wing images. The coordinates were analysed using the methodology of geometric morphometrics. We found that honey bees obtained from honey bee queen breeder differed in wing venation from surrounding populations, which are under natural selection. Therefore, we argue against including populations under artificial selection in the analysis of the natural geographical variation of honey bees. In our analysis of non-breeding samples, we found that in south-eastern Europe there is continuous variation in wing venation and no clear boundaries between A. m. carnica, A. m. cecropia, and A. m. macedonica.

Keywords: Apis mellifera; Breeding; Honey bee; Serbia; Wing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Locations in Serbia from which samples of honey bee wings were obtained in three different years.
* The designation of Kosovo is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence. Map source: https://worldclim.org.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Variation of the wing shape in Serbia represented by the first two principal components when breeder samples (year 2010) were included (A) or excluded (B).
Ellipses indicate 95% confidence regions.
Figure 3
Figure 3. The first principal component of wing shape interpolated over sampling locations using a generalised additive model when breeder samples were included (A) or excluded (B).
Map source: https://worldclim.org.
Figure 4
Figure 4. UPGMA tree showing similarity between countries in wing shape when breeder samples were included (A) or excluded (B).
Figure 5
Figure 5. The first (A) and second (B) principal components of wing shape interpolated over sampling locations in south-eastern Europe using a generalised additive model.
Breeder samples were excluded from this analysis. Map source: https://worldclim.org.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Discrimination between countries based on the first two canonical variates.
Ellipses indicate 95% confidence regions. Breeder samples were excluded from this analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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