Determination of the performances and morphological characters of important honeybee races and ecotypes in Turkey

147 SUMMARY This study was conducted to determine performances and the morphological characters of some important honeybee (A. mellifera L.) races and ecotypes in Turkey. Experimental colonies were collected from 6 different regions such as Central Anatolia Region (Ankara-Beypazan), North Eastern Anatolia Region (Ardahan-Posof), Marmara Region (Çanakkale-Gökçeada); Thrace Region (Tekirdağ-Saray), Aegean Region (Muğla-Fethiye) and Mediterranean Region (İçel-Erdemli). The survival rates of Anatolian, Caucasican, Muğla, Gökçeada, Thrace and Alata bees were found to be 100 %, 80 %, 100 %, 100 % 80 % and 100 % respectively during 2 years of experiment. The average number of frames covered with, bees were found to be 7.54±0.37, 8.68±0.57, 17.04±0.76, 13.94±0.79, 8.52±0.40 and 13.84±0.61 frames/colony; and the average amount of brood were found to be 1112.6ill0.68, 1184.8±162.85, 2387.5Ü63.53, 2030.2±188.86, 1433.9±153.19 and 1501.5Ü28.81 cm2/colony respectively. The mean brood rearing activity was found to be highest in Jury (3245. 1±1 76.65) and the lowest in September (119.8±18.72 cmVcolony). High and positive correlations were found between colony development and brood rearing activity, wax building and honey production (r=+0.546, r=+0. 917 and r=+0. 918 respectively). The average agressiveness of Anatolian, Caucasican, Muğla, Gökçeada, Thrace and Alata genotypes were also determined and the caucasican bees were found to be the most gentle ecotype among the others. A Positive and high correlation (r=+0.539) was found between the development of colony population and agressiveness. Only the Gökçeada genotype had a high swarming tendency (30 %) and other groups did not show any swarming activity, during 2 years of experiment. The average honey yields of Muğla, Alata, Gökçeada, Caucasican, Anatolian and Thrace genotypes were found to be 50.16±4.30, 43.48±3.46, 41.21±5.18, 26.56±5.51, 20.57±3.60 and 15.94±3.40 kg/colony respectively. Wax secretion and comb building was found to be different in different genotypes; the average wax building activities of Anatolian, Caucasican, Muğla, Gökçeada, Thrace and Alata were found to be 0.7S±0.364, L5(MMS> 7.3&1.25& ÜG±İ.229\148 2.28±0.563 and 4.37±0.459 combs/colony respectively. High and positive correlation (r=+ft 764) was found between wax building and honey production. The wintering ability of Anatolian, Caucasican, Muğla, Gökçeada, Thrace and Alata genotypes were found to be 75.59±3.89, 69.33±7.25, 64.25±2.90, 72.90±3.66, 41.47±6.87 and 62.63±3.51 % respectively. Total of 41 morphological characters measured biometrically in order to determine the characteristics of honeybee populations in Turkey. It was found that length of hair on tergite 5, width of tomentum on tergite 4, width of tergite 3, distance betwen wax mirrors, lenght of cubital vein b, angels on front wing venation (A4, B4, D7, G12, Li3 and 026) were significiantiy (P<0.0000) important and differentiated the populations when stepwise discriminant analysis method was used. It was also found that 100 % of the total variation was explained by 5 canonical discriminant functions. However 93.72 % of total variation was determined by only the first three canonical discriminant functions. The lowest and highest canonical discriminant coefficients were found to be between -1.9944 and 2.0772 for Anatolian (A. m. anatolima), 0.0861 and 3.3860 for Caucasican (A. m. caucasica); -1.8313 and 4.2487 for Muğla genotype; -3.3215 and 7.5392 for Gökçeada genotype; -5.6136 and 2.8301 for Thrace genotype; -7.0949 and 1.3241 for Alata genotype. According to the coefficients of these canonical discriminant functions the genotypes of Turkish honeybee samples can be estimated and classified.