Geometric morphometric discrimination of the three African honeybee subspecies Apis mellifera intermissa, A. m. sahariensis and A. m. capensis (Hymenoptera, Apidae): Fore wing and hind wing landmark configurations

Abstract

Geometric morphometric discrimination of the three African honeybee... 61 Geometric morphometric discrimination of the three AbstractIn this study, a landmark-based geometric morphometric analysis was carried out on three honeybee subspecies: Apis m. intermissa and A. m. sahariensis collected from Algeria, and, as a reference, A. m. capensis collected from South Africa. The aim of this study was to discriminate honeybee subspecies by patterns of shape variation of fore and hind wings. A total of 540 wings from 270 honeybee workers were analyzed. Our results revealed very high cross-validation classification rates (96.7% based on fore wing shape and 99.6% based on the combination of fore and hind wing forms respectively). Discrimination was better using shape and form (shape + centroid size) of the fore wings than of the hind wings. The wing form parameters were found to differ significantly in shape and centroid size among the three analyzed subspecies. Finally, it may be concluded that landmark-based geometric morphometrics could be a powerful tool to characterize the Algerian honey bees.

Geometric morphometrics of the forewing shape and size discriminate Plebeia species (Hymenoptera: Apidae) nesting in different substrates

“…Among Hymenoptera, the Anthophila clade (bees) is the taxon that has been subjected most thoroughly to GM analyses (Aytekin et al ., ; Tofilski, ; Francoy et al ., ; Owen, ; Barour & Baylac, ; Falamarzi et al ., ). Although a wide range of bee taxa have been studied this way (Aytekin et al ., ; Tofilski, ; Francoy et al ., ; Owen, ; Falamarzi et al ., ), the stingless bees (Apidae: Meliponini) have received special attention from bee researchers (Francoy et al ., ; Combey et al ., ; Vijayakumar & Jayaraj, ).…”

“…In recent decades, most studies investigating the morphological variation of insects have incorporated geometric morphometrics (GM) using Cartesian geometric coordinates rather than linear measurements (Tatsuta et al, 2018). Thus, GM has been an Among Hymenoptera, the Anthophila clade (bees) is the taxon that has been subjected most thoroughly to GM analyses (Aytekin et al, 2007;Tofilski, 2008;Francoy et al, 2009;Owen, 2012;Barour & Baylac, 2016;Falamarzi et al, 2016). Although a wide range of bee taxa have been studied this way (Aytekin et al, 2007;Tofilski, 2008;Francoy et al, 2009;Owen, 2012;Falamarzi et al, 2016), the stingless bees (Apidae: Meliponini) have received special attention from bee researchers (Francoy et al, 2009;Combey et al, 2013;Vijayakumar & Jayaraj, 2013).…”

Wing Geometric Morphometrics of Workers and Drones and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Provide Similar Genetic Structure in the Iberian Honey Bee (Apis mellifera iberiensis)

“…Compared with traditional methods, geometric morphometrics is more flexible in data acquisition, is able to capture the geometry of morphological structures preserving this information throughout the analysis [1] and has a greater discriminating power (see [12][13][14][15][16]). These features have made geometric morphometrics a popular tool to investigating diversity patterns of many organisms (reviewed in Adams, et al [1] and Tatsuta, et al [11]), the western honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) is no exception [2,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

“…Wing geometric morphometrics has proved capable of identifying lineages, subspecies, and even hybrids [2,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. However, whether this method is equally capable of capturing genetic structure within a subspecies range has yet to be fully assessed.…”

“…A number of studies have applied geometric morphometrics to investigate wing sexual dimorphism in social hymenopterans [56][57][58], which tends to be pronounced in this group of insects [59] due to the haplodiploid sex-determination system. In honey bees, geometric morphometrics surveys have typically been applied to the forewings of workers [2,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22] since drones usually exhibit a higher number of wing venation anomalies due to their haploid condition [60]. Besides, drones are only present in the colony during certain periods of the year, making harder their sampling.…”