In Europe, distribution of the several endemic honey bee (Apis mellifera) subspecies has suffered a considerable shift in the last century. In particular, beekeepers tend to favour subspecies of Eastern European ancestry (C-lineage), such as the Italian honey bee (A. m. ligustica), due to their perceived docility and high honey production. As a result, large scale migratory beekeeping and trade of C-lineage que...
Honey is highly susceptible to adulteration. Currently, the assessment of its geographical origin remains one of the most difficult tasks, which is typically performed by melyssopalynology. Recently, the attention has shifted towards indirect approaches such as the entomological origin based on geographical distribution patterns of honey bee subspecies. Although queens’ trade has impacted the natural subspecies...
Worldwide commercial beekeeping poses a threat to the native origin of the honeybee (Apis mellifera), with beekeepers favouring subspecies of Eastern European C-lineage ancestry, due to their docile behaviour and high honey production traits. In many parts of western and northern Europe, queens of Western European M-lineage ancestry have been massively replaced by queens of C-lineage ancestry, and this has led ...
Europe is home to ten Apis mellifera subspecies, which belong to three mitochondrial lineages: the Western European (M), Eastern European (C), and African (A). However, the long-standing human-mediated movement of queens, primarily of C-lineage ancestry, has threatened the genetic integrity of many of these native subspecies through introgression and replacement. This has led to the establishment of conservatio...
Wing venation patterns have long been used to identify honey bee subspecies, singly or in combination with other morphological traits, using different approaches. Beekeepers have traditionally used identification methods that only require estimations of the Cubital Index, Hantel Index, and/or Discoidal Shift Angle. However, these measures do not consider all the information carried by wing patterns, and a more ...