Morphometric Analysis of the Indian Honeybee in the Northeast Himalayan Region

SummaryAnalyses of 55 morphometric characters were made for collections of Apis cerana from 16 localities in the northeast Himalayan region. Bees from this region have been recognized as distinct from those of the northwest Himalayas and South India. In this region, 3 biometric groups were identified that correspond to geographic distributions in (1) the Naga and Mizo Hills, (2) Brahmaputra valley and Khasi hills, and (3) the foothills of the Himalayas. Discriminant analysis of the samples using all characters and a minimum number of characters are given with appropriate statistics. Correlations of character variation with rainfall and altitude are discussed. Bees from the Himalayan biometric group (3) are generally larger in size than those from the other two groups as well as South India.