Reproductive Characteristics of Some Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) Genotypes

Queen honeybees of different races such as A. m. carnica, A. m. ligustica, A. m. caucasica (NEA-TKV) and A. m. caucasica (NEA-Camili) races and west Anatolia (Mu?la) and central Black Sea (Tokat) region genotypes were raised in central Anatolia (Sivas) from May to Aug in 2001. The acceptance ratio of larvae, the mating ratio, the preoviposition period, the volume of spermatheca and the number of spermatozoa in per spermatheca were investigated. In this study the significant (p<0.05 and p<0.01 respectively) differences were found among genotypes in terms of preoviposition periods and the volume of spermatecha. However, periods had significant (p<0.01, p<0.01, p<0.05 and p<0.01 respectively) effects on the acceptance rate of larvae, preoviposition period, volume of spermatheca and the number of spermatozoa. This result indicated that environment or climatic conditions had greater effects on the reproductive physiological characters of the queens than the genotypic structure. The preoviposition period of the A. m. carnica was (15.04?0.23 day) longer than those of the other genotypes. Queens could mate at the average temperatures at around 18-19EC. There were significant positive correlations between the temperature and the number of spermatozoa, whereas there were negative correlations between temperature and the volume of spermatheca, between the number of spermatozoa and the volume of spermatheca, between the preoviposition period and the number of spermatozoa in the per spermatheca.