Apistract

the persian bee ,apis mellifera meda,was first described by skorikov in 1926 based on tongue lenght and shape of the abdominal steites (Ruttner et al,1985). in the early description ,the  distribution  of A.M.meda was extended later to the north of Iraq,syria and the southeaste parts of turkey( ruttner,1988). Although it is distributed in an area that is important in terms of honey bee evolution (ruttner,1988),the honey bees of Iran have been less extensively studied.Morphometric analysis has been used to study variation within A.M.meda ( ruttner et al.,2000).however there is no study of allozyme variability in honey bees from Iran .Enzyme polymorphisms in honey bee subspecies have been extensively studied (for detail review see sheppard and smith,2000).The objectives of thistudy were to determine the biochemical variability of Iranian honey bees and to compare the results with published data from surrounding population.

Honey bee samples were collected in july 2002 from south of the Caspian sea.The area is mountainous and the highlands reach 2500 meters.Lowland bees are on the plains,in areas not more than 800 meters altitude. Six locations,hancayi,sefar,zanjan(highlands), Gultepe,duzteran,gholikhandy (lowlands)were visited and46 colonies were sampled.Starch-gel electrophoresis was performed Kandemir and kence(1995).Allozymes were detected after gels were stained for Est-3( E.C.3.1.1) ,Hk(E.c.2.7.1.1 )Pgm (E.c.5.4.2.2 ) , Mdh( E.c.1.1.37),Me( E.c.1.1.1.40) and Pgi E.c.5.3.1.9).Population structure parameters were determined by the BIOSIS-1 package Swofford and Selander,1981).