The honey bee Apis mellifera L. showed patterns of biological variations as this species has an unusually large geographical distribution. Morphometric studies were carried out to investigate the geographic variation or ecotype evolved with colonies sampled from three different locations of Northern India. Morphometric analysis of worker bee was carried out taking twelve morphological characters viz., proboscis length, femur length, tibia length, metatarsus length, metatarsus width, fore wing length, fore wing width, hind wing length, hind wing width, cubital index, body size index and pigmentation of tergites. It was observed that all the morphometric variables significantly varied among the colonies. Correlation analysis indicated that colonies from three locations were strongly related despite morphological differences, and hence these populations could be considered as ecotypes.
Morphometrics, Apis mellifera, populations, correlation, cubital index
