Haplotype diversity and genetic similarity among populations of the Eastern honey bee from Himalaya-Southwest China and Nepal (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Apis cerana Fabricius, the principle mainland species of Apis s.str. in Asia, remains an amalgamation of populations with considerable variation and regionally specialized morphotypes. In this study, populations of A. cerana were evaluated from the Himalayan region and areas in southwestern China as well as from neighboring Nepal based on a 97-bp-long fragment of mtDNA spanning the COI and COII genes. A total of 14 haplotypes were detected among the 58 sampled sequences, including 11 new haplotypes and 3 haplotypes previously reported from Chinese and Japanese populations of A. cerana. Analysis of these haplotypes and additional previously reported haplotypes from the Oriental region using neighbor-joining methods support a clustering of the Oriental haplotypes relative to southern India, but was unable to resolve with great support affinities within the branch. The network analysis revealed a mostly radiant genetic pattern, whereby most haplotypes were directly connected to one particular haplotype, Japan1. Our results indicate that the previously identified morphoclusters may reflect regional, ecological specialization among otherwise unrelated genetic lineages rather than a single, shared history.