Journal of University of Duhok., Vol. 20, No.1 (Agri. and Vet. Sciences), Pp 64-72, 2017 DOI: https://doi.org/10.26682/avuod.2017.20.1.9 64 SOME MORPHOLOGICAL AND ANATOMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HONEY BEES FROM DUHOK PROVINCE, IRAQ ZAHRA NAEEF AYOUB Dept. of Plant protection, College of Agriculture, University of Duhok, Kurdistan Region-Iraq. (Received: August 6, 2017; Accepted for publication: November 13, 2017) ABSTRACT In this study, some morphological and anatomical characteristics of 2000 nurse honey bees (Apis mellifera) collected from four apiaries at Duhok province, northern of Iraq were investigated during summer 2015. Results showed that body mass, body length, mandible length, tongue length and femur length ranged from 136.14 ± 6.12 to 145.06 ± 3.87mg, 12.23 ± 0.36 to 12.39 ± 0.14mm, 1.51 ± 0.05 to 1.56 ± 0.07 mm, 6.32 ± 0.12 to 6.58 ± 0.11 mm, and2.66 ± 0.06 to 2.78 ± 0.07mm, respectively. Concerning the anatomical characteristics, the length of the main ducts of hypopharyngeal glands, average acini dimension, and average dimension of fat body cells ranged from 12.98 ± 0.25 to 13.42 ±0.42mm, 139.12 ± 6.45 to 148.45 ± 7.39μm, and 80.26 ± 4.32 to 85.96 ± 5.22μm, respectively. The results also showed that workers collected from colonies at the mountains had longer femur, longer tongue, more body mass, bigger fat body cells, and bigger hypopharyngeal glands acini than those collected from colonies at the plains. Significant positive relationship was found between the body mass of the workers and dimensions of fat body cells as well as dimensions of the acini. Also, significant positive relationship was found between the body length and the length of main duct of hypopharyngeal gland. This study has special importance in understanding characteristics of honey bees in northern of Iraq. KEYWORDS: Morphometric, Honeybee, Hypopharyngeal gland, Fat body. 1. INTRODUCTION oney bees (Hymoneptera: Apidae, Apis mellifera) are social insects known as the most economically valuable insects because of their honey production and pollinating activities (Lawal and Banjo, 2010). Honey bees are considered the most economically valuable pollinators for agricultural crops worldwide (Johnson, 2010). Morphometric approaches have been applied to separate Apis mellifera than the other three commonly defined species; A. florea, A. cerana, and A. dorsata (Ruttner, 1986). Also, these approaches have contributed in a large measure to the discrimination between different honeybees’ subspecies in order to characterize their diversity (Ruttner, 1988). Standard morphometric was used in honey bee studies by measuring different wing angles, indices and distances (Ruttner, 1988). Various honey bee colonies, races and species were discriminated by employing morphometric analysis (Moradi and Kandemir, 2004; Raina and Kimbu, 2005; Farhoud and Kence, 2005; Shaibi et al., 2009; Rattanawannee et al., 2010; Nedić et al., 2011). The tongue length was considered a very important character because it shows the geographical variability more accurate than all the other characters, femur length and tongue length are reported by Ruttner (1988) as highly discriminatory morphometric characteristics. The weights of honey bee workers ranged from 81-140 mg (Winston, 1987). They are mediated by genetics as well as by environmental effects such as the amount of food fed to larvae (Daly and Morse, 1991). The important function of the fat body is the one of regulating the chemical composition of the hemolymph through the absorption, storage, synthesis and liberation of lipids, proteins and carbohydrates (Cruz-Landim, 1985a). Hypopharyngeal glands (HPGs) are composed of a pair of ducts that are connected with more than 500 glandular acini (containing secretory cells) (Winston, 1987). The glands are located underneath the pharynx in the head capsule. They play an important role in rearing the queens and H