''Apis mellifera anatoliaca'' (known commonly as the Anatolian honey bee) is a subspecies of '' Apis mellifera'' (honey bees).

Habitat

This bee is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the

Anatolian Anatolian or anatolica may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the region Anatolia * Anatolians, ancient Indo-European peoples who spoke the Anatolian languages * Anatolian High School, a type of Turkish educational institution * Anatol ...

region of Turkey, populating the central and western parts of the country, but not

European Turkey East Thrace or Eastern Thrace ( tr, Doğu Trakya or simply ''Trakya''; el, Ανατολική Θράκη, ''Anatoliki Thraki''; bg, Източна Тракия, ''Iztochna Trakiya''), also known as Turkish Thrace or European Turkey, is the pa ...

, as later research identified the honey bees of the

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...

region as primarily '' A. m. carnica''.

Taxonomy

This bee type belongs to the branch of bee classified by Ruttner (1988) as "Oriental". A recent genetic study confirmed that the sub-species belongs to an Eastern Europe branch of the genotype of the honey bee. Mitochondrial Deoxyribonucleaic acid (mtDNA) analysis of Thracian bees showed some similarities to the

Apis mellifera carnica The Carniolan honey bee (''Apis mellifera carnica'', Pollmann) is a subspecies of the western honey bee. The Carniolan honey bee is native to Slovenia, southern Austria, and parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Hungary, ...

, although this same similarity was absent from Anatolian bee samples (Smith and Brown (1990) & Meixner ''et al.'' (1993). The cause of this is given as inter-breeding of native populations with nearby Austrian, Slovakian and Croatian bees.Deborah R.Smith (2002) (referencing 54 studie
uludagaricilik.org.tr website
Uladag Bee Journal 2002 etrieved 2011-12-21/ref>

References

External links

H. V. Gençer, E. Başpinar, Ç. Firatli (2003)website
''The Graphic Evaluation of Morphological Characters in Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.) by Chernoff Faces'' TARIM BİLİMLERİ DERGİSİ 2004, 10 (3) 245–249 {{Taxonbar, from=Q4779876 mellifera anatoliaca Western honey bee breeds