EGYPTIAN AND THE CARNIOLAN HONEY BEES TO

IMPROVE ITS MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS

[30]

Elbassiouny¹, A.M.

Abstract

The present study aimed to evaluate the important morphological characters in the Egyptian honey bee race Apis mellifera lamarckii via hybridized it with A. m. carnica (standard race) using artificial insemination (to control over mating). The results showed that there are no significant differences between (♀carnica x ♂lamarckii) and the carnica inbreed (♀carnica x ♂carnica) in major important characters as regards in the proboscis length, fore-wing length, wing hooks, 1^st wax mirror width and the sting length . Also there are significant differences between the reciprocals,(♀carnica x ♂lamarckii) and (♀lamarckii x ♂carnica) in all characters. The heritability (h²) based on offspring mid-parent regression in the reciprocals (♀car x ♂lam & ♀lam x ♂car) for the proboscis length (0.597&0.427), fore-wing length (0.501 & 0.465), hind-tibia length (0.463 & 0.515) and the sting length (0.685 & 0.723) were highly estimates than the other characters indicating that it can be improved by selection.