Biological and production characteristics of certain lines of honey bee in Serbia

Abstract

During the previous decades the natural populations of honey bee Apis mellifera carnica at the territory of Republic of Serbia has been subjected to constant negative influence of man, in first place through deployment of pesticides, herbicides and other chemical substances requisite in agriculture, but also due to uncontrolled import of and crossbreeding with the other breeds of this bee. For the purpose of preservation of existing populations and natural diversity of honey bee and for the purpose of their further selection, researches upon the metric morphology and productive features of certain individual populations of choice at the territory of Republic of Serbia. In this study the quantity of the nest, of bees and of honey with two East Serbian lines (S and L) of honey bee during the spring season have been the subject of survey. The S line has shown more advanced development having 1.06 frames more and 0.11 bees more in the second year assessed. At the Szabo test of honey productivity the S line has shown in both years assessed that it had collected 29.91% and 49.51% more honey per respective year than the line L bees. Through the survey of morphological parameters we have come to conclusion that the differences in length of the forewing and the rear wing, cubital index, length of the tongue and number of spikes at the rear wing have been statistically very significant (p lt 0.01).

Prirodne populacije medonosne pčele Apis mellifera carnica na području Republike Srbije su poslednjih decenija pod stalnim negativnim uticajem čoveka, pre svega primenom pesticida, herbicida i drugih hemijskih jedinjenja u poljoprivredi ali i zbog nekontrolisanog uvoza i mešanja sa drugim rasama ove pčele. U cilju očuvanja postojećih populacija i prirodne raznovrsnosti medonosne pčele i njihove dalje selekcije sprovode se ispitivanja morfometrijskih i produktivnih osobina pojedinih odabranih populacija sa teritorije Republike Srbije. U radu je ispitivana količina legla, pčela i meda u prolećnom periodu kod dve linije (S i L) medonosne pčele Istočne Srbije. Linija S je pokazala bolji razvoj i više legla za 1,06 rama i pčela za 0,11u drugoj ispitivanoj godini. U Szabo testu na mednu produktivnost, linija S je u obe godine ispitivanja imala za 29,91% i 49,51% više meda od linije L, respektivno po godinama. Ispitivanjem morfometrijskih parametara utvrdili smo da su razlike u dužini prednjeg i zadnjeg krila, kubitalnom indeksu, dužini jezika i broju kukica na zadnjem krilu bile statistički vrlo značajne (p lt 0,01).