Morphological studies of honey bees in the northern wooded steppe zone of the Republic of Bashkortostan

The article presents assessment results for the preservation of European dark honey bees in the northern wooded steppe zone of the Republic of Bashkortostan, which is an integral structure in the honey bee Apis mellifera mellifera population of northern Bashkortostan. Bee farms of 24 settlements in Askinskiy, Arkhangelskiy, Baltachevskiy, Karaidelskiy and Yanaulskiy districts show the persistence of taxonomically pure bees, which stands for 73 % of the samples. During the bee-breed identification, the most volatile parameters were determined (the length the rostrum, the length and width of the right hemelytron, the cubital index) that are greatly influenced by the hybridization processes. The presence of registered pure-breed bee colonies speaks of the biopotential of the European dark bee population in the farms of the given region, which will allow to create pedigree breeding units and pure breeding zones for native bees in the future.