Morphological variation of Varroa mites in apiaries of different geographic regions of Iran

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Karaj. Iran

2 Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran

3 Department of Biotechnology، Animal Science Research Institute of IRAN (ASRI)

Abstract

Varroa mite as one of the most important causes of honey bee colony losses has been the subject of numerous studies during the last 4 decades in Iran. Considering the importance of morphological traits in the adoption of control methods, this research was designed to investigate the morphological variation of Varroa mite in different geographical regions of Iran. So, a total of 675 adult female mites were collected from 45 apiaries in 5 different geographical locations. The collected samples were fixed in 96% ethanol and 143 adult Varroa mites were selected and mounted on permanent slides in Hoyer medium for measurement of 14 morphological traits. Statistical analysis of data was done using multivariate analysis of variance, principal components analysis, cluster analysis and Tukey's test. The results showed that the average of LDS and WDS were 1828.36 ± 52.28 and 1226.84 ± 28.86 µm, respectively. The average ratio of body size was 1.49, which shows that the studied populations belong to Varva destructor. Cluster analysis showed that all populations except Alborz belong to one morphotypic group. The results of principal components analysis showed that the 14 studied traits were summarized into 3 components which can justify 71.42% of total variance. The results of multivariate analysis of variance showed that only LDS and LAS were significant between the two morphotypes (P<0.001). As well as, the traits of LDS, WGS, LAS and WAS had significant difference between different geographical regions (P<0.001).

Keywords

Main Subjects

Iranian Journal of animal Science

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 10 July 2024

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 16 January 2024
  • Revise Date: 27 May 2024
  • Accept Date: 01 June 2024

Share

How to cite

Statistics