Biometrical Studies on Variation and Races of the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.)

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Abstract
This study is based on materials collected from their native locations as well as from the U. S. A., in which original measurements of over 3000 specimens from 47 localities, together with previous measurements of 10,000 specimens from Russia and about 1500 from the U. S. A., are considered. Colony variation, demonstrated by the number of hooks (hamuli), is but a part of race variation. Body size of workers is influenced by season, temp. during pupation, size of cell, age of nurse bees, individuality and population of the colony. Body size is correlated with length of larval feeding period and accompanied by changes in body proportions. In Russia, geographic variation is expressed from north to south by an increasing tongue length, smaller body, increased hook number (except in N. Caucasian bees), smaller surface in 1st wax gland, relatively broader wings and longer legs. In the U. S. A., the black and yellow races retain the peculiarities of these races in Europe, although Italian races reared in the U. S. A. show longer tongues, larger bodies, and lighter color than in Italy. Bees inhabiting N. Caucasus and Transcaucasia represent an advance in the north-south variation; the mountain gray Caucasian is a reversion to the N. type, differing from the yellow Caucasian bees in the valleys. Caucasian bees have relatively long legs and the longest tongues found in any race studied. Variation in biology and behavior, swarming, number of queens and cells, plant preferences, gentleness, and capping of combs parallels geographical variation of physical characteristics. Geographical variation is shown to be continuous and gradual, the characters being correlated positively and negatively or varying independently. Names are proposed to designate the extreme geographical forms, viz.: A. m. mellifera L. for the N. European black type; A. m. ligustica Spin., the SW. type (Italian); A. m. remipes Ger., the SE. type of Caucasian bees; and A. m. caucasica Gorb., the gray mountain Caucasian bee. Eighty-four literature citations are included.