CLINAL GEOGRAPHIC-VARIATION IN FERAL HONEY-BEES IN CALIFORNIA, USA

Feral honey bees in California are mongrel populations, partially differentiated in morphometrics from managed colonies as well as from European subspecies. Most morphometric variables had low but significant correlations with environmental factors and clinal patterns of spatial auto correlation with distance. Some measurements of body size exhibited Bergmann's Rule, but the hind legs did not exhibit Allen's Rule. The geographic variation is presumably adaptive and has developed within 138 years in the presence of a large, mobile beekeeping industry. Colonies of small worker bees in the warmer and drier regions of the state may represent an ecotype adapted to desert conditions.