The loss of genetic diversity on native Turkish honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) subspecies

In recent years it is thought that there has been a homogenization in honeybee biodiversity of Turkey due to the widespread migratory beekeeping and the use of commercial queenbee. Therefore, in the present study it was investigated whether the honey bee biodiversity of Turkey is conserved or not. For this aim worker honey bee samples were taken from 32 different locations of Turkey and the right front wing were studied considering 19 landmarks by using geometric morphometric method. According to research results, although there are local areas within local honeybee races are protected, biodiversity of Turkey which was reported in previous studies (Apis mellifera caucasica in the north, Apis mellifera meda in the south, Apis mellifera syriaca in the southwest, Apis mellifera carnica in Thrace and A. m. anatoliaca in rest of Anatolia) has not been protected today. Discriminant function analysis and UPGMA dendograms showed that each of Isparta, Ardahan, Gaziantep, Kahramanmara？ and Zonguldak populations were clustered separately and distiguished from other populations. On the other side, K？rklareli and Igd？r formed a group; Izmir, Van and Hatay formed other group, Hakkari, Antalya, Mugla, Bilecik, Bal？kesir and Canakkale formed other chorent group. Generated groupings in this study were not incompatible with previous literature reports. Overlapping of samples representing subspecies from different regions showed that honeybee biodiversity in Turkey was significantly affected by the usage activities of commercial queenbee