Apis mellifera anatoliaca (known commonly as the Anatolian honey bee) is a subspecies of Apis mellifera (honey bees).
Habitat This bee is endemic(French) Brother Adam & G.Ledent (perso.fundp.ac.be website) referenced content within 3rd sentence of L'abeille d'Anatolie Centrale in BA 29(4) 1965 p81-85 of La Belgique Apicole,28 & 29 1964–65 [Retrieved 2011-12-21] to the Anatolian region of Turkey, populating the central and western parts of the country, but not European Turkey, as later research identified the honey bees of the Thrace region as primarily A. m. carnica.
Taxonomy This bee type belongs to the branch of bee classified by Ruttner (1988) as "Oriental". A recent genetic study confirmed that the sub-species belongs to an Eastern Europe branch of the genotype of the honey bee. Mitochondrial Deoxyribonucleaic acid (mtDNA) analysis of Thracian bees showed some similarities to the Apis mellifera carnica, although this same similarity was absent from Anatolian bee samples (Smith and Brown (1990) & Meixner et al. (1993). The cause of this is given as inter-breeding of native populations with nearby Austrian, Slovakian and Croatian bees.Deborah R.Smith (2002) (referencing 54 studies)uludagaricilik.org.tr website Uladag Bee Journal 2002[Retrieved 2011-12-21]
References
External links
H. V. Gençer, E. Başpinar, Ç. Firatli (2003) website The Graphic Evaluation of Morphological Characters in Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.) by Chernoff Faces TARIM BİLİMLERİ DERGİSİ 2004, 10 (3) 245–249