Arid Land Agriculture Department, College of Agricultural Sciences & Foods, King Faisal University, Alhassa, Saudi Arabia.
Economic Entomology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt.
PLoS One. 2021 Feb 19;16(2):e0247262. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247262. eCollection 2021.
The Yemeni honeybee (Apis mellifera jemenitica Ruttner) is the native race in Saudi Arabia. The Carniolan honeybee (A. m. carnica Pollmann) and its hybrid with the Egyptian honeybee (A. m. lamarkii Cockerell) have been imported and frequently reared in Saudi Arabia. Temperature often exceed 40 °C during the summer season in most regions of Saudi Arabia. Honeybees decrease foraging activity in this period during mid-day, which affect colony productivity. The Yemeni bee race appears well adapted to these unique climatic conditions. We compared body weight and morphometric parameters of both subspecies' worker bees reared at the apiary of Training and Research Station, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa oasis of eastern Saudi Arabia. Measurements of Yemeni bee were smaller than Carniolan bee for body weight, head structures, including antenna, flagellum, and proboscis length, thorax appendages, including femur length, tibia length and width, metatarsus length and width of the right hind leg, and length and width of the right forewing and hind wing, abdominal characteristics, including the length of the 3rd and 4th abdominal tergites and sternites, and length and width of the 1st and 4th wax mirrors. It could be concluded that with the exception of the number of hamuli, worker Yemeni bee body size and morphometric parameters related to the colony productivity were smaller than Carniolan bees under environmental conditions of the study region.
也门蜜蜂（Apis mellifera jemenitica Ruttner）是沙特阿拉伯的本地品种。卡尼鄂拉蜜蜂（A. m. carnica Pollmann）及其与埃及蜜蜂（A. m. lamarkii Cockerell）的杂交种已被引入并在沙特阿拉伯频繁饲养。在沙特阿拉伯的大多数地区，夏季的温度经常超过 40°C。在这段时间里，蜜蜂会减少中午的觅食活动，这会影响蜂群的生产力。也门蜜蜂品种似乎很好地适应了这些独特的气候条件。我们比较了在沙特阿拉伯东部的 Al-Ahsa 绿洲的法伊萨尔国王大学培训和研究站的养蜂场饲养的两个亚种工蜂的体重和形态参数。也门蜜蜂的体重、头部结构（包括触角、鞭节和喙的长度）、胸部附属物（包括股骨长度、胫骨长度和宽度、跗节长度和宽度的后腿右、右前翅和后翅的长度和宽度、腹部特征（包括第 3 和第 4 个腹节的长度和腹板、以及第 1 和第 4 个蜡镜的长度和宽度）均小于卡尼鄂拉蜜蜂。可以得出结论，除了距的数量外，在研究区域的环境条件下，也门工蜂的体型和与蜂群生产力相关的形态参数均小于卡尼鄂拉蜜蜂。
