<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Honey bee (<italic>Apis mellifera</italic>) wing measurements are often used to discriminate lineages and subspecies. The precision and repeatability of the measurements depends on various factors, including seasonal variation, and differences between left and right wings. The seasonal variation of the cubital index, which is the proportion of two vein lengths, has been investigated, but subspecies can be identified through geometric morphometrics. This method allows both wing size and shape to be determined and analyzed separately. We studied changes in the wing size and shape in consecutive months between June and September as well as the differences between the left and right wings. We found that wing size differed significantly among colonies, months and body sides, but shape differed significantly only among colonies and months but not among body sides. There was also a complicated pattern of interactions between various factors. The seasonal differences in wing shape were much smaller than the differences among colonies and their influence on identification of honey bee lineages was relatively small.</p>
</abstract>

Honey bee (Apis mellifera) wing measurements are often used to discriminate lineages and subspecies. The precision and repeatability of the measurements depends on various factors, including seasonal variation, and differences between left and right wings. The seasonal variation of the cubital index, which is the proportion of two vein lengths, has been investigated, but subspecies can be identified through geometric morphometrics. This method allows both wing size and shape to be determined and analyzed separately. We studied changes in the wing size and shape in consecutive months between June and September as well as the differences between the left and right wings. We found that wing size differed significantly among colonies, months and body sides, but shape differed significantly only among colonies and months but not among body sides. There was also a complicated pattern of interactions between various factors. The seasonal differences in wing shape were much smaller than the differences among colonies and their influence on identification of honey bee lineages was relatively small.

Monthly Changes in Honey Bee Forewings Estimated Using Geometric Morphometrics

Journal of Apicultural Science

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Monthly Changes in Honey Bee Forewings Estimated Using Geometric Morphometrics"}

Honey bee (Apis mellifera) wing measurements are often used to discriminate lineages and subspecies. The precision and repeatability of the measurements...

Effect	df	MS	F	p
colony	3	5894	58	0.000000
month	3	1084	11	0.000001
side	1	421	4	0.043060
colony*month	9	755	7	0.000000
coony*side	3	16	0	0.926473
month*side	3	6	0	0.983432
colonymonthside	9	14	0	0.998740

Effect	Wilks Λ	F	p
colony	0.562513	3.273041	0.000000
month	0.729034	1.719851	0.000020
side	0.979761	0.319570	0.999931
size	0.738690	5.472685	0.000000
colony*month	0.392991	1.702865	0.000000
colony*side	0.900845	0.548305	0.999919
month*side	0.908418	0.503640	0.999990
colony*size	0.570564	3.184397	0.000000
month*size	0.729804	1.713796	0.000023
side*size	0.979607	0.322057	0.999925
colonymonthside	0.728981	0.556043	1.000000
colonymonthsize	0.393136	1.702155	0.000000
colonysidesize	0.901142	0.546541	0.999925
monthsidesize	0.908748	0.501705	0.999991
colonymonthside*size	0.729055	0.555861	1.000000

Monthly Changes in Honey Bee Forewings Estimated Using Geometric Morphometrics

Article Category: Original Article

Data publikacji: 03 mar 2021

Zakres stron: 139 - 146

Otrzymano: 17 cze 2020

Przyjęty: 27 paź 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jas-2021-0002

Słowa kluczowe
forewing, geometric morphometrics, shape, size

© 2021 Anna Janczyk et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Differences in wing size analyzed by three way analysis of variance

Differences in wing shape analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) with wing size used as covariate

Monthly Changes in Honey Bee Forewings Estimated Using Geometric Morphometrics

Article Category: Original Article

Data publikacji: 03 mar 2021

Zakres stron: 139 - 146

Otrzymano: 17 cze 2020

Przyjęty: 27 paź 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jas-2021-0002

Słowa kluczoweforewing, geometric morphometrics, shape, size

© 2021 Anna Janczyk et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Differences in wing size analyzed by three way analysis of variance

Differences in wing shape analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) with wing size used as covariate

Słowa kluczowe
forewing, geometric morphometrics, shape, size