Correlações fenotípicas para características reprodutivas de zangões africanizados (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Abstract

Drones contribute haalf of the colony’s genetic material, where their sole function is to fertilize a queen. Obtaining the database with quality and number of information takes time, and during this process estimates of phenotypic correlations between characteristics may be useful in guiding the selection criteria selection. Therefore, the aim of this study was to estimate phenotypic correlations for morphometric and reproductive characteristics of emergency drones in a database of 329 drones from six different families. The data were subjected to Pearson correlation, and the average of the characteristics with the aid of the SAS/STAT[marca registrada] statistical package.13.1 User's Guide.The results for the average drone weight at emergence was 202.81±17.84mg and overall length 15,39±0.74mm. For abdomen length and width the measurements are 7.69±0.68mm and 5.48±0.29 mm, respectively. The mucous gland has a weight of 12.60±1.9mg, the seminal vesicle has a weight of 1.79±0.59mg. The mucous gland area is 25.45±8.59mm, and the seminal vesicle area 8.59±2.92mm. For mucous gland volume and seminal vesicle volume, the respective values are 37.84±18.12mm³ and 6.65±3.31mm³. For the phenotypic correlations it was observed that the correlations were more significant between drone weight at emergence and morphometric measures such as total length, length and width of abdomen, and correlations between reproductive characteristics such as mucosal gland volume, weight and area seminalvesicle. Therefore, the morphometric characteristics of emergency drones can be used as parameters to select individuals for genetic improvement.