Contributions to the racial characterization of the bee population of Gran Canaria.

Abstract

The Canarian bee population for decades has been affected by the introduction of foreign breeds. The bet for the recovery of the breed in its purity, working at the same time to improve its productivity indexes, to make it more competitive with foreign breeds, seems to be the most appropriate, since it is the genotype evolved in the environmental conditions of the Canary Islands during centuries the best adapted to the flora, weather and general environmental conditions of the region. The study has been carried out with four private apiaries and with the apiary of the Canarian Black Bee Testing Station. In total, 43 hives have been used and a total of 540 samples of worker bee wings have been collected in order to carry out the morphometric evaluations necessary to determine the racial purity in order to meet the following objectives: A) Provide information for the definition of the racial standard of the Canarian Black Bee. B) Contribute to the Canarian Black Bee testing center proposals to purify the current breeding stock. C) Determine the level of hybridization of the apiaries in the center of the island of Gran Canaria. We extracted each honeybee and dissected the wing above the front right wing of each individual. The samples were placed on glass slides and set by transparent tape because it is a quick and easy method. The wings were scanned. We are going to establish 3 different levels based on the values obtained in the cubital index (CI) and the discoidal shift (DS): Level 1 Lineages to maintain CI<2 and DS<0. Level 2 Lineages candidates to eliminate while waiting for productive results CI<2 and DS>0. Level 3 Lineages clearly to eliminate CI> 2. Our conclusions are: 1-We consider CI<2 and DS<0 as valid measures to include in the racial standard of the Canarian Black Bee. 2-Eliminate of the Testing Station Center hives level 3 (CI>2). 3-Percentage of hybridization of the hives in the center of the island is 23.52% clearly hybridized, 23.52% moderately hybridized and 52.98 % non-hybridized.