Morphometric characteristics of Apis cerana from Sri Lanka

Worker bees from 11 colonies of A cerana collected from different geographical regions of Sri Lanka were examined. The coefficients of variability of 19 morphological characteristics were calculated and a tergite colour classification was carried out. The greatest mean coefficient of variability was 24.41% for tergite colour, and 7.94% for proboscis length, while the least variable was 1% for forewing length. The possibility of using highly variable simple characteristics in tandem selection is suggested