Potential Niche Modeling Distribution and Wing Geometric Morphometrics of Apis mellifera In The Brazilian Pantanal

The ecological niche models can be important for biogeographic patterns and processes and geometric morphometrics involves identifying changes that have occurred and comparing them to other specimens from different places and/or environmental conditions, assessing whether the environment is influencing such change. The present work aimed to verify the potential model of distribution for Apis mellifera and analyze if there is variation in the geometric morphometrics in wing venation in the Pantanal. We followed the hypothesis that there is variation in the geometric morphometrics of wings and that the geographically closest groups are more similar. For niche modeling, 44 geographical points and 19 bioclimatic variables were used. For morphometrics, twenty-two anatomical landmarks were plotted at the intersection of the veins. The X and Y coordinates were standardized through Procrustes superimposition, and PCA and MANOVA tests were performed. The predictive model indicated that the center of the Pantanal plain shows the greater probability of occurrence for the species. The most important bioclimatic variables were: average temperature in the rainiest quarter (84%) and average annual temperature (72%). Morphometric analyzes indicate that there was variation between the most distant geographic points. The slight variation between some closely located points in the Pantanal can be related to individual reflections of colonies from other points, since the species has great dispersion capacity. Thus, the distribution of A. mellifera in the Pantanal is possibly related to temperature also accompanied by human occupation and the geometric morphometrics of its wings reflecting aspects of dispersion and population dynamics in the Brazilian Pantanal