Apis mellifera pomonella
Apis mellifera pomonella | ||||||||||||
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Apis mellifera pomonella | ||||||||||||
Sheppard & Meixner , 2003 |
Apis mellifera pomonella is the easternmost subspecies of the western honey bee ( Apis mellifera ).
distribution
Apis mellifera pomonella was discovered through morphometric studies of bee samples in Central Asia, in the western and eastern Tianshan Mountains. It would have been obvious that these were originally bees from migrant beekeepers in the Soviet Union . However, the investigations clearly showed that it is a separate subspecies. This means that the natural range of the western honey bee has expanded by about 2000 km to the east.
morphology
A. mellifera pomonella can morphologically be assigned to the group of "bees of the Middle East" (after Friedrich Ruttner ). It is similar to the Caucasian bee ( A. mellifera caucasica ), but slightly smaller and has a shorter trunk.
See also
literature
- Friedrich Ruttner: Natural history of honey bees . Franckh Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-440-09125-2 .
- Walter S. Sheppard, Marina D. Meixner: Apis mellifera pomonella, a new honey bee subspecies from Central Asia. Apidologie, (2003) Volume 34, Number 4, July-August 2003.