SOME MORPHOLOGICAL AND ANATOMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HONEY BEES FROM DUHOK PROVINCE, IRAQ
Abstract
In this study, some morphological and anatomical characteristics of 2000 nurse honey bees (Apis mellifera) collected from four apiaries at Duhok province, northern of Iraq were investigated during summer 2015. Results showed that body mass, body length, mandible length, tongue length and femur length ranged from 136.14 ± 6.12 to 145.06 ± 3.87mg, 12.23 ± 0.36 to 12.39 ± 0.14mm, 1.51 ± 0.05 to 1.56 ± 0.07 mm, 6.32 ± 0.12 to 6.58 ± 0.11 mm, and2.66 ± 0.06 to 2.78 ± 0.07mm, respectively. Concerning the anatomical characteristics, the length of the main ducts of hypopharyngeal glands, average acini dimension, and average dimension of fat body cells ranged from 12.98 ± 0.25 to 13.42 ±0.42mm, 139.12 ± 6.45 to 148.45 ± 7.39µm, and 80.26 ± 4.32 to 85.96 ± 5.22µm, respectively. The results also showed that workers collected from colonies at the mountains had longer femur, longer tongue, more body mass, bigger fat body cells, and bigger hypopharyngeal glands acini than those collected from colonies at the plains. Significant positive relationship was found between the body mass of the workers and dimensions of fat body cells as well as dimensions of the acini. Also, significant positive relationship was found between the body length and the length of main duct of hypopharyngeal gland. This study has special importance in understanding characteristics of honey bees in northern of Iraq.
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