Issue |
Apidologie
Volume 28, Number 5, 1997
Intra-specific variation in the honeybee
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Page(s) | 243 - 258 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:19970501 |
DOI: 10.1051/apido:19970501
Biogeographical correlates of population variance in the honeybees (Apis mellifera L) of Africa
H.R. Hepburna and S.E. Radloffba Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa
b Department of Statistics, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa
Abstract - Multivariate analyses of morphometric characteristics of worker honeybees from five transects through northwestern, northeastern, west central, southwestern and southeastern Africa yielded sequences of statistically defined morphoclusters (= subspecies) alternating with heterogeneous zones of introgression. All transects contain areas of significantly high variance. High intracolonial variance indicates localised genetic variation and out-cross matings. Regions of high intercolonial variance occur at and between subspecific boundaries. These are typical of transitions between, and rainfall-temperature discontinuities within, different ecological-climatological zones. They constitute areas of ecological instability amidst otherwise contiguous populations.
Key words: honeybee / populations / morphometrics / variance / phenology / Africa