Abstract:
Heritabilities and correlations between Brood Area (BA), Colony Population (CP), Honey Production (HP), Productivity (PR) and some morphological characteristics were estimated on the Iranian honey bees (Apis mellifera meda). Heritability estimates were 0.69±0.09, 0.50±0.08, 0.46±0.08, 0.34±0.06, 0.51±0.08, 0.42±0.07, 0.90±0.10, 0.94±0.10 and 0.72±0.09, respectively, for Proboscis Length (PL), Femur Length (FL), Tibia Length (TL), Metatarsus Width (MW), Leg Length (LL), Fore Wing Length (FWL), Fore Wing Width (FWW), Hind Wing Length (HWL) and Hind Wing Width (HWW). Phenotypic correlation between PR to BA and CP were significantly negative (-0.38 and -0.35, respectively) and positive to HP (0.65). Colony traits were related to PL, FL, TL, LL, MW, FWL, FWW and HWL. Brood area was correlated to proboscis length significantly positive (r = 0.20). Brood area and colony population were correlated significantly positive to tibia length, metatarsus length and width, fore wing length and width and hind wing length. Between proboscis length and productivity there was a negative and high significant correlation (r = -0.29). Correlation between tibia length and productivity was significantly negative. Between harvested honey with femur length, tibia length, leg length and fore wing width there were positive and high significant correlations. From these results it is concluded that productivity is correlated directly to honey production and indirectly to brood area and colony population.
|
Subscribe Today 
