Diversity of honey bee Apis mellifera subspecies (Hymenoptera: Apoidae) from the Western Highlands of Cameroon based on morpho-biometry

Abstract

The study was carried out from August to September 2016 in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. The main objective was to contribute to a better understanding of biodiversity of honeybees for their preservation and genetic improvement. To attain this, samples of 420 workers bees belonging to Apis mellifera subspecies were obtained from 14 localities in the study zone. Body measurements in mm gave the following values: honey bee length (10.98 ± 0.06), abdomen length (6.71 ± 0.03), width of the yellow band on the second (2^nd) abdominal tergite (1.48 ± 0.01), width of fourth (4^th) abdominal tergite (1.32 ± 0.01), length of cover hair on the fifth (5^th) abdominal tergite (0.29 ± 0.00), antenna length (4.27 ± 0.02), proboscis length (4.39 ± 0.11), length of nervure A (0.60 ± 0.00), length of nervure B (0.25 ± 0.00), discoidal shift (-0.13 ± 0.01), anterior right wing length (9.31 ± 0.03), anterior right wing width (3.14 ± 0.01), posterior right wing length (6.38 ± 0.03) and posterior right wing width (1.69 ± 0.01). A correlation coefficient significantly (p<0.01) higher (0.72) was obtained between the length of posterior right wing and the length of the anterior right wing. The cubital index is 2.36 ± 0.04. Populations of honeybees studied consist of three genetic types; genetic types 2 and 3 are closer together. The observed biodiversity suggests that honeybees constitute a natural resource with genetic variability needed for preservation and genetic improvement.